Manchester City are reportedly ‘leading’ a number of Premier League clubs to sign a Leicester City teenager who the Championship club won’t have a say in keeping hold of.
City have a wealth of attacking talent but are failing to put most of their assets to good use this season. The fifth-placed Premier League side have scored 17 goals this season – leading the league – but Erling Haaland has 11 and nobody else has more than one.
Phil Foden has scored just once, while it’s notable the likes of Bernardo Silva and Jeremy Doku have failed to find the net in the league.
Pep Guardiola will not want these issues to persist, and will want to both fix the issue immediately and ensure the struggles don’t come back in the future.
For the second part of that, Leicester winger Jeremy Monga is being eyed, with City said to be ‘leading the race’ for him, per TBRFootball.
They were close to signing Monga last summer, when he instead decided to sign scholarship terms with Leicester. Since then, the 16-year-old winger has been a starter in the Championship, scoring once and assisting once.
City’s interest has persisted, and given Monga is not yet 17, he can’t sign his first professional deal and the Foxes would therefore be unable to stop him from being prised away.
Insider Graeme Bailey labelled Monga a “generational talent” and said: “there is a belief in January he could be ready to make a move.”
City are the most advanced of any side at the moment, though Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester United and Newcastle are all keen on him, too.
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Monga deal would be nearly unprecedented for City
Pep Guardiola has essentially only ever signed one player from the Championship, or at least only one of any real consequence at City.
The manager has signed 70 players during his time at the Etihad, and Nathan Ake is the only player other than Scott Carson to be signed from the second tier.
Ake had just been relegated from the Premier League from Bournemouth, so was not really a Championship player – he hadn’t played a game there after the relegation – while Carson only ever played two games for City.
Monga, then, would be something different, but there’s a clear reason he would be signed, with the Leicester teenager already well at home in men’s football.
He even played seven times in the Premier League last season, so would not be going into the unknown despite being just 16.
Manchester City round-up: Bayern Munich ‘really worried’
Bayern Munich are said to be ‘really worried’ that offers will be sent to Dayot Upamecano, who is due to be out of contract there at the end of the current campaign.
City are one of his suitors, along with Liverpool and Chelsea.
Also in defence, the Citizens are reportedly eyeing Ezri Konsa as a potential signing.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid have been told by one of their former players that they need to sign Erling Haaland.
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