Manchester City have shown that they like to sign players who have previous Premier League experience.
For example, since Pep Guardiola took charge of the Blues back in 2016, City have signed players such as John Stones, Kyle Walker, Jack Grealish and Matheus Nunes from fellow top-flight clubs.
Another player who made a move to the Etihad Stadium after spending a substantial amount of time with one of City’s Premier League colleagues is Mateo Kovacic.
Having spent five years at Chelsea, the midfielder signed for City during the 2023 summer transfer window in a deal worth £25m.
Now in the midst of his second season with the Citizens, the 30-year-old has made an interesting claim about another player in the City squad he knows very well.
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Mateo Kovacic backs Josko Gvardiol to become a ‘great’ player at Man City
Appearing in a recent video shared on the official Man City YouTube channel, Kovacic said this after picking Josko Gvardiol as one of the defensive options in his ultimate XI made up of past and present Premier League players from Croatia.
He said: “I will go, yeah four, I would put on the left because Josko can play quite a lot of positions played up front in City this year played in the back three so Josko is already in my team the youngest of the players and yeah, already a Premier League winner so deserves to be in there.
“For sure Josko is a great player, great character, a guy that wants to improve and I think there is no better club than being at City so for sure Josko will be great, already is for this club and for our national team.”
How did Gvardiol get on in his debut season at City?
During the 2023 summer transfer window, City paid £77.6m to sign Gvardiol from RB Leipzig.
Racking up 42 appearances in total across all competitions in his debut season at the club, 28 of them came in the Premier League where the £200k-a-week defender scored four goals and delivered two assists to help City win the title.
Across those 28 games, Gvardiol made more blocks (36) than any other City player as well as having a higher combined total of tackles and interceptions (82) than any other defender in the squad.
This then led to Peter Schmeichel naming City’s move for Gvardiol as the best Premier League signing of that summer transfer window.
Taking all of that on board, it’s easy to see why Kovacic thinks so highly of his fellow countryman and why he thinks he has what it takes to be even better in the future.
