Many top players have been sold by Manchester City in recent years.
The likes of Riyad Mahrez, Julian Alvarez and Cole Palmer have all departed the Etihad Stadium under Pep Guardiola – with the latter in particular reaching new heights at Chelsea, where he can boast 40 goals and 25 assists in 88 appearances.
Manchester City sold the England international in the summer of 2023, but now, another player who left in that same transfer window has experienced a bump in the road.
Al-Nassr to release Aymeric Laporte
TalkSPORT are now claiming that Al-Nassr are set to offload Aymeric Laporte after just two seasons in Saudi Arabia.
The Spain international joined the Saudi Pro League side in a £23.6m move from Manchester City in August 2023 after he fell out of favour under Guardiola, but has failed to settle with Al-Nassr.
Laporte, who wanted to leave Saudi Arabia last summer, is said to earn £390,000-a-week playing alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, but with 12 months still to go on that deal, Al-Nassr are about to tear it up, keen to offload the third-best paid defender on the planet behind Virgil van Dijk and Kalidou Koulibaly.
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TalkSPORT add that Marseille have made an approach for the 30-year-old, a club in possession of a stadium he truly admires.
Marseille Velodrome I think even empty 🤩 https://t.co/vWikjt3gHm
— Aymeric Laporte (@Laporte) November 9, 2020
Hugo Viana could do worse than bring Aymeric Laporte back to Manchester City for depth
Guardiola could use another central defender in his squad at the moment, so the timing of this news is quite interesting.
Laporte said he departed Manchester City due to the fact he felt uncomfortable playing at left-back, telling Marca: “I’d been playing for two years in a place that wasn’t the position I wanted to play.
“When a year or two years go by and you don’t play in the right place for you, it’s a bit frustrating because you don’t show your best. I was used to playing as a centre-back and not so much on the wing. It’s just not the ideal position for me.”
0.01(xG).
Aymeric Laporte with a strike from deep inside his own half…pic.twitter.com/haytBjP7ky
— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) February 1, 2024
Now, however, Guardiola has Nico O’Reilly impressing down the left, and is clearly eager to bolster his centre-back department having signed Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis in January, who are only 21 and 19 years of age respectively.
Therefore, Manchester City could use an experienced figure to help the talented duo, and a swoop for Laporte on a free transfer might not be a bad idea whatsoever, given his familiarity with life at the Etihad Stadium.