If Florian Wirtz decides to play his football at the Etihad Stadium next, Pep Guardiola and Manchester City have every reason to celebrate.
The German international is arguably the best number 10 in the world and there are not many better candidates across European football to succeed Kevin De Bruyne next season.
Wirtz is Manchester City’s dream target and they are not willing to give up in the pursuit to sign the 21-year-old — despite superior sides like Bayern Munich and Liverpool also in the hunt to sign him.
Bayern are favourites to sign Wirtz while Arne Slot’s side have dethroned City as the finest team in English football this season.
Photo by Pau Barrena/Getty Images
Photo by Pau Barrena/Getty Images
Barcelona star Dani Olmo is Man City’s Florian Wirtz alternative
As a result, Manchester City will certainly have a tough time convincing Florian Wirtz to leave Bayer Leverkusen to sign for them in the summer.
Unlike Tijjani Reijnders, who dreams of joining Manchester City, the sought-after attacker is yet to have decided his future.
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But Manchester City have a contingency plan in place in case they are unable to sign Wirtz, with Sky Sports reporting that Pep Guardiola is keen on adding Dani Olmo to his roster in that case.
Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images
Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images
Last summer as well, Manchester City held Olmo in high esteem but at the time, they were not working on a deal to sign the Spanish international.
But this time around, the report has mentioned that the Barcelona attacker’s entourage has been in regular contact with City.
Pep Guardiola’s side are aware that signing Olmo will be far easier in comparison to Wirtz, considering Barcelona’s finances are not in the best shape despite their success on the pitch.
If Manchester City were to sign the former RB Leipzig midfielder, Hansi Flick’s side would demand a fee of €69 million (£58 million).
However, the English giants will only accelerate their efforts to sign Olmo if Wirtz decides not to play his football at the Etihad Stadium.
Olmo vs Dani Wirtz stats this season
In the past, Manchester City were concerned about Olmo’s injury record and in the coming months, it will be interesting to discover whether that still remains a fear for the Sky Blues.
But as Manchester City and Pep Guardiola in particular seem like they still admire Olmo, here are how his stats compare to Wirtz’s this season.
STATS THIS SEASON DANI OLMO FLORIAN WIRTZ
STARTS 22 36
GOALS 11 16
ASSISTS 7 15
Based on the numbers, it is easy to see why the latter is City’s go-to man as he has almost double the number of goal involvements (31, 16 goals and 15 assists) as compared to Olmo (18, 11 goals and seven assists).
But it is always advisable for top clubs to earmark alternatives for their number one targets and the newly-crowned La Liga champion is no different.