Cagliari boss Claudio Ranieri tipped Manchester City-linked defender Alessandro Bastoni to succeed Giorgio Chiellini one day.
As quoted by Sempre Inter in June 2021, the former Leicester City manager made this claim about the 24-year-old, who was linked as a summer target for Pep Guardiola’s men on Monday.
Claudio Ranieri has gone as far as to mention Manchester City target Alessandro Bastoni in the same breath as Giorgio Chiellini.
Claudio Ranieri tipped Manchester City target Alessandro Bastoni to become the next Giorgio Chiellini
Funnily enough, even the legendary Italian centre-back recently admitted that the Inter Milan defender is ‘among the best in the world.’
Bastoni seems to be highly-rated by the masses due to his excellence in possession, astute reading of the game and calm demeanour at the back.
So much so that Claudio Ranieri tipped Manchester City-linked centre-half Alessandro Bastoni as the rightful successor to Giorgio Chiellini.
“He will be Chiellini’s heir”, he briefly said.
Sky Blues supporters should certainly be over the moon about this comparison considering that Chiellini is hands down one of the greatest centre-backs in the history of the game.
Alessandro Bastoni is class but do the treble-winners need him?
For starters, while Manchester City seem to have targeted a cracking defender in Alessandro Bastoni, Claudio Ranieri may have exaggerated by likening him to as much of a pure defender as the LA FC veteran.
Leaving that aside, whether the English juggernaut even need to sign the Italian international is the question.
No team in the world possesses their strength in depth in defence, boasting the likes of Ruben Dias, John Stones, Josko Gvardiol, Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji at their disposal.
Unless one of these names decide to leave the club or are offloaded, it would make far more sense for City to reinforce another area of the pitch, such as at left-back or by signing a right-winger.
