Pep Guardiola has the opportunity to replicate one of his previous transfer masterclasses at Manchester City this summer.
Back in the 2020 summer window, the Citizens spent £65m to sign Ruben Dias from Benfica when he was 23.
Since then, the centre-back has become a significant player for the Manchester club, making 133 appearances across all competitions.
Three years later since the Portuguese international arrived at the Etihad Stadium, the treble winners now have the chance to make a similar sort of signing this time around.
Guardiola could replicate Dias masterclass with Gvardiol
Earlier this month, Fabrizio Romano claimed that City have scheduled talks with RB Leipzig to negotiate a potential deal for Josko Gvardiol, who they had agreed personal terms with back in June.
With the German club apparently wanting €100m (£86m) to sell the Croatian, this put him in the same frame as Dias was when City signed, a young centre-back making a name for himself at a big club in Europe that would cost the Manchester club a significant amount of money to sign.
Looking at the defensive duo’s previous individual league campaigns, they ended up racking up a very similar number of aerial duels won (44 vs 43), as well as tackling a similar number of opponents (21 vs 23).
One player connected to City who knows what the Leipzig star is all about is Mateo Kovacic, who described Gvardiol as a “phenomenal” player back in December.
With all of that in mind, we feel that the 21-year-old has what it takes to replicate what Dias has done during his successful time at City in Guardiola’s squad.
