Paul Dickov has praised Manchester City for landing transfer deals for Jeremy Doku and Josko Gvardiol.
During the previous summer transfer window, the Citizens added the duo to their squad, in addition to securing deals for Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes, making it a rather busy summer period of transfer business for the club.
With a few months having gone by for these new City players, one pundit has weighed in on what he has seen from two of the recruits in particular.
Dickov says Doku and Gvardiol are world-beaters
Speaking on talkSPORT, Dickov had this to say about Gvardiol and Doku on the subject of City’s recruitment.
He said: “The recruitment side of it is fantastic. I think the difference between City and a lot of clubs is the recruitment.
“Txiki Begiristain, Ferran Soriano, the chairman and Pep [Guardiola], they all work together and they know maybe 12, 24 months in advance the players that they want to sign because they do their homework on them. Especially Josko Gvardiol coming in at 21, Jeremy Doku, 21, they look like world-beaters already because they do their homework and they bring players in who they feel can improve.
“The players they do sign, I think 99% of them under Pep goes on and they kick on again and I think we’ve seen that this year.”
Since arriving from RB Leipzig in a deal worth £77m, Gvardiol has made 12 appearances for Pep Guardiola’s side across all competitions.
Having started 11 of those games, this shows how much of an important figure the Croatian has already become for the club.
As for Doku, the winger has scored three goals and supplied six assists across the 13 games he has appeared in.
With four of those assists and one goal coming in City’s 6-1 victory over Bournemouth last weekend, this performance alone shows why Dickov considers Doku to be a world-beater, despite his fairly young age and the fact that he has only recently become part of Guardiola’s squad.
Taking all of that into account, we feel that the early signs about Doku and Gvardiol have been positive so far, as the duo have shown on the pitch why the club decided to pay so much money to bring them to the Etihad Stadium.
Moving forward, if the pair can continue to deliver throughout the remainder of the campaign and help City win more trophies, we predict they will surely be seen as being some of the best transfer deals in the league from last summer.
