Pundit Steve Howey has said that he was surprised Manchester City were able to land a transfer deal for Mateo Kovacic.
During the previous summer transfer window, the Citizens signed the midfielder from Chelsea in a deal worth £30m, making him their first incoming signing of the window.
Now in the midst of his debut season at the Etihad Stadium, one pundit and former City player has shared his thoughts on the Croatian’s move to the Manchester club and how he has settled into Pep Guardiola’s team.
Howey hails Kovacic signing
Speaking in a recent live stream on the club’s YouTube channel ahead of City’s Premier League match against Bournemouth, Howey had this to say about Kovacic.
He said: “First of all, he’s a top player. I think, for me, he seems to have settled in really well, looked very comfortable in that area. We all know how good of a player he is and he just looks dead comfortable in there.
“Gets the understanding of the players, the players’ movement, how everybody kind of shifts around, but just his break-up play and his link-up play, for me, has been absolutely top quality.
“You’re surprised really when City can buy him because you’d have thought that the other clubs would have been thinking ‘well, we’re not letting him go there,’ and he’s come in and he’s been absolutely superb.”
Given how early it was into the transfer window that City landed their deal for Kovacic, this shows how eager they were to add him to their squad.
Prior to the Bournemouth game, the midfielder had featured in 11 games for City across all competitions, starting nine of them, which shows how he immediately managed to make himself an important player for Guardiola.
Moving forward, if Kovacic can keep playing regularly and show why the club were so quick to land a deal for him, he’ll surely be seen as being a great bit of business from City, especially if they end up winning more trophies.
