Nedum Onuoha says Manchester City have made a top signing with Josko Gvardiol.
The Manchester club secured a deal worth £77m for the defender from RB Leipzig earlier this month.
Last night saw the Croatian make his debut for the Citizens as he came on as a second-half substitute in the 3-0 win over Burnley.
Even before the centre-back stepped foot on the pitch at Turf Moor, one former City defender couldn’t hide his excitement at the fact that the club now have Gvardiol in their squad.
Onuoha raves over Gvardiol transfer
Speaking in a pre-match live stream on the club’s official YouTube channel, Onuoha had this to say about City’s signing of Gvardiol.
MORE MAN CITY STORIES
He said: “He’s so, so young, City have signed a really young player with huge talent, his ceiling is so high.
“To have that level of experience at that age to be a full international, to be wanted by so many people, it’s a huge credit again that the club have offered something which the player wants to be a part of.
“Obviously, some people will say it’s the treble, but still, it’s a fantastic signing, huge potential and he comes in and he will get better and better and better.
“In this environment, with the players around him, he will continue to get better, testing himself on a weekly basis in the Premier League will make him better. It seems that City have got a real gem there.”
Even though he only played 11 minutes of action last night, the summer recruit showed his defensive ability by making two tackles and winning all four of the duels he was involved in.
At the age of 21, having made over 100 combined appearances for his previous club and the Croatia national team, this highlights the experience the defender has that Onuoha mentioned and makes it easy to see why it cost City such a significant amount of money to sign him.
However, the fact that the club did splash out such a big fee for the defender shows that they must have seen enough in him to think he’d be a top player for them.
Moving forward, having his first taste of Premier League football, it’ll be interesting to see how Gvardiol fares when given the chance to play a full game.