1 hour ago
34
Manchester City are close to completing a deal for Antoine Semenyo but when he moves to the Etihad could make a big difference
Manchester City have put in the hard work to sign Antoine Semenyo in the January transfer window. The Blues faced competition from a number of clubs but did enough to edge in front and held more talks on Monday designed to finalise the details of a £65m deal.
If the pre-match graphic from Bournemouth for their match with Chelsea is anything to go by, they are setting Semenyo up to go out with a bang on his time with the club. However, there have also been reports that the club want to keep their star man for upcoming games with Arsenal and Tottenham before letting him go.
That would suit Bournemouth obviously, but not City. And while it is within Bournemouth's right to decide when to sell their player it is also them who have chosen this window at the start of January as the best to sell him.
For City, it isn't about having Semenyo available to face Brighton or Chelsea - although the earlier he is allowed to start working with Pep Guardiola the better and Chelsea may not be thrilled about having to face the same player twice in a week. But the more games the 25-year-old plays for his current club, the more risk of something happening to him before a transfer can be completed.
City were on the other side of this with another high-profile transfer a few years ago. Bayern were publicly rebuked by their former manager Guardiola for the way they went about signing Leroy Sane, talking up a deal in the media without actually contacting City to sort it out.
The delays went on for so long that City ended up starting Sane in their Community Shield game in 2019. He suffered a season-ending injury and nobody ended up getting what they wanted; Bayern had to wait a year, City got a lower fee and the player missed important months in his career.
It's not to say that anything will happen if Semenyo plays extra games for Bournemouth, just that it simply isn't worth the risk for City. Having put so much into winning the race for the forward, they don't want it scuppered in the final days by something outside of their control.
The quicker City can get Semenyo to the Etihad once the window opens on Thursday, the better deal it can be.
English (US) ·