Manchester City were recently beaten by Sporting CP, and one of their players has now admitted he would like to play under Pep Guardiola.
Manchester City are currently on a four-game losing streak and fans are growing increasingly concerned about the season ahead.
City have lost Rodri for the foreseeable future to injury and his absence is stinging.
City’s third loss of the four came against Sporting CP in the Champions League. The Portuguese champions took advantage of some very suspect defending, and won the game 4-1 in Lisbon.
It was the Viktor Gyokeres show, with the red-hot Swede scoring a hat-trick.
After the game, one Sporting player admitted that he hopes to join Man City, but it wasn’t Gyokeres.
Maxi Araujo admits he hopes to join Man City
Gyokeres stole all the headlines a couple of weeks ago when Sporting humbled City at the Jose Alvalade Stadium.
But there was also a goal from left wing-back Maxi Araujo. He finished off a great team move just seconds into the second-half.
The Uruguay international also did a fairly good job marking Savinho, showing a lot of aggression and physicality against the Brazilian.
City have been linked with a move for Gyokeres in recent weeks with Hugo Viana apparently keen. But there is no word on whether he would actually want to join the club. Guardiola did also play down speculation about Gyokeres, talking up his current number nine Erling Haaland.
But one man who does want that move is Araujo, who actually asked Pep Guardiola for a photo after the game.
He told O Jogo: “Hopefully, hopefully… I asked him (Guardiola) for a photo, we talked for a few minutes and he congratulated me. I’m very happy for that. We talked about the game, nothing much.”
Should Man City look to sign Maxi Araujo?
This is an interesting comment from Araujo, who definitely impressed when City and Sporting squared off a couple of weeks ago.
The South American has only been with Sporting since the summer, after transferring from Mexican club Toluca. But he has made a decent start so far, making 12 appearances and chipping in with two goals and one assist.
Araujo plays a wing-back for Sporting, but operated as a winger often for his former club Toluca, for whom he scored 11 goals and made 10 assists.
City probably don’t really need a player like Araujo at the moment as Guardiola has the likes of Josko Gvardiol and Nathan Ake as options to play on the left, with Rico Lewis also able to provide cover.
He only ranks 12th in the Sporting squad for average match ratings so far on WhoScored, suggesting he has not massively stood out.
However, it’s early days for him there and perhaps the 24-year-old should be monitored given his admission about Guardiola.
