Leroy Sane Saga Rumbles On

For Manchester City fans the ongoing long drawn out courting of Leroy Sane by Bayern Munich has become tedious.

When Manchester City signed Leroy Sane he heralded the beginning of the Pep Guardiola era. Here was an exciting youthful prospect who burst onto the scene and signalled the beginning of the City domination.

It is important to reflect at this moment upon some of the fantastic contributions he has made to our Club because that is likely to be forgotten in the dreary ongoing transfer saga.

Those bursting Leroy Sane runs from the left wing that opened up team after team, resulting in him either crossing for an easy tap in or him coming inside and scoring.

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Those free kicks where he hit the ball with power and force, curling past the defensive wall and into the top corner.

Think of Sane and it is hard to ignore the important goals he scored against Manchester United, Schalke and Liverpool. It is also hard to ignore the beauty of some of the moments he has given to us – think about that 7-2 demolition of Stoke City.

Yet things between him and City have soured. Remember the glee we felt when he had his City goal celebration tattooed on his back? Then of course he had the City badge tattooed out, leaving him in a generic kit.

Guardiola did not always pick him and footballers being footballers, and full of self confidence and belief felt aggreived by that. However unlike others he did not seem to use that as an inpsiration to work harder, instead he just felt hard done by.

City sought to reward all of their players with improved contracts after the title successes but Sane turned the offers down, believing he was worth more and setting himself on a collision course with the Club.

Whether he was really that unhappy or just being badly advised is not clear but his actions have contributed to the problems too.

His agents, both old and new, have courted Bayern Munich. Now, players come and go and if a player wants to leave then go, not a problem. But the public dallying with Bayern has been indecent at times.

City have a player who has missed all season so far through injury. Of course he has been well paid for not playing but could have earnt more somewhere else, or indeed could have earnt more at City if he had simply signed the contract extension which had been offered. In fact, that is still on the table.

As it stands his current contract with City runs for over another year until June 30 2021. Clearly he is wanted at Bayern, but not enough that they are willing to pay the price City have in mind. Instead the Bayern strategy is to let the player know they love him and want him and try to reduce the transfer cost.

The next step in that approach is usually to get the player to agitate for a move. So it is no surprise that Sane’s agents are this week in the press talking up a move. Putting aside the enormous disrespect this shows to Manchester City, it is a dare, saying “we will cause trouble” if you hold him to the contract.

Therein lies the real issue of course. Sane is contracted to City and there is nothing to say we have to sell him at all. For Sane the approach he is taking is high risk. With a Euros coming up what will his position be if he spends the next 12 months in City reserves?

And before anyone says City will not do that, just remember how we waited the stand off out with Carlos Tevez. Quite simply City have the resources to call the shots.

As a fan, I will be sad to see Sane go as he has been a great player who I think has the potential to be even better. He has the chance to be remembered as a City great though by going with grace.

We have now reached the point where the transfer saga is just tedious. Rumbling on and without conclusion it threatens to undo our memory. I don’t care if he stays or goes anymore, but would prefer it to be over.

Unfortunately at the moment it feels as though he will just be another James Milner to us and that is the real shame.