Shaka Hislop believes that the latest reports about one first-team Manchester City player are very positive for the club.
Manchester City have just finished their pre-season tour of the US, which was a success.
Pep Guardiola didn’t have a number of key players available. But he was able to take a look at some of the youngsters and fringe players.
The likes of James McAtee and Nico O’Reilly impressed so much that they will now become first-team options for 2024/25.
And established youngsters like Rico Lewis and Oscar Bobb furthered their cases to have more involvement in the coming season.
There were also a few appearances in pre-season for Ederson, a payer who has been strongly linked with an exit from the club.
But there was one suggestion recently that Ederson could be set to stay, which former Premier League goalkeeper believes would be excellent news for City.
Shaka Hislop thinks Ederson staying at Manchester City would be ‘significant’
Ederson has been a target for the Saudi Pro League all summer.
He was first wanted by Al-Nassr, and more recently, Al-Ittihad have been trying to sign the Brazilian stopper.
Ederson has supposedly given the green light to make the move.
But there has never been an agreement reached between City and another Saudi club. Supposedly, City wanted somewhere in the region of £42m-£50m for the star.
Over the weekend, it was reported that Al-Ittihad had finally given up trying to sign Ederson. They are now signing Predrag Rajkovic instead.
For Hislop, City keeping hold of Ederson would be a big boost. He said in video for ESPN FC: “I think it’s a huge plus for Manchester City, the way they play, the way Pep asks his goalkeepers to take chances and passing the ball out of the back.
“I think that’s significant because we weren’t quite sure what direction he would go in the long term if Ederson moved on.”
Ederson staying would be a big boost
For the moment, it looks like Ederson will be staying at City. But of course, there are still a few weeks to go in the transfer window and anything could happen.
We know that Ederson is open to leaving. It is just about whether a club will make a satisfactory offer.
But Hislop is right. Ederson staying would be a big boost for the club.
While Stefan Ortega is primed and ready to step up and become the new number one. The German is not quite as good as his teammate when it comes to distribution and ball-playing.
He is very good in his own right. But £35 million star Ederson is probably the best in the world when it comes to that side of the game, so to keep someone like that can only be a good thing.
Former City goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon said recently that Ederson was a ‘fantastic goalkeeper’, and that you don’t often find someone like him in football. So keeping him would be huge.
