Manchester City are a thorough club when it comes to recruitment.
Unlike rivals Manchester United, who seem quite reactionary in this respect, often lazily signing the headline name at the time such as Rasmus Hojlund, Antony, Harry Maguire and Paul Pogba with little regard for how they would fit into the team, Manchester City act differently.
Txiki Begiristain pieced together many a cog during his time as Director of Football, keeping the spine of the side fresh as Ederson replaced Joe Hart, Erling Haaland came in for Sergio Aguero, Rodri for Fernandinho and Ruben Dias for Vincent Kompany.
There was, however, one target the Spaniard failed to deliver for Pep Guardiola, a player Hugo Viana now looks set to finally bring to the Etihad Stadium in Rayan Ait-Nouri.
Signing Rayan Ait-Nouri would see Pep Guardiola finally land his target from 2020
The Guardian believe Manchester City are confident of signing the Algeria international in a £50m move from Wolves, as a natural option is targeted for the left-back role.
Josko Gvardiol will be pleased, as the arrival of Ait-Nouri would allow him to return to his preferred position in the centre of defence.
Interestingly, French news outlet Foot Mercato claimed back in July 2020 that Manchester City had submitted a bid for the Algerian, while he was still only 19 years of age playing for Angers SCO.
The story even stated that Ait-Nouri travelled to the Etihad Campus to check out the facilities.
However, the man born in Montreuil ultimately opted to join Wolves on loan in October 2020, and impressed enough to see a £10m option to buy activated in July 2021.
Now aged 23, Ait-Nouri has amassed 135 Premier League appearances, scoring nine goals and providing 11 assists to help keep Wolves out of the Championship.
The player Manchester City picked Rayan Ait-Nouri ahead of
Going back to the point of Manchester City being a thorough club, the Wolves No.3 was unsurprisingly not the only left-back on Viana’s shortlist.
Manchester City also considered Antonee Robinson of Fulham, after an excellent 2024/25 campaign in which he provided ten assists in 38 Premier League appearances – only Anthony Elanga, Jacob Murphy and Mohamed Salah recorded more.
Ait-Nouri registered seven assists in comparison, also scoring four goals in 37 Premier League outings.
Therefore, perhaps the Algerian’s added goal threat was what drove Manchester City to choose him over Robinson, with a deal now expected to materialise in the coming days.
