Man City chasing £70m ace ‘very similar to Bellingham’

The January transfer window is still busy Manchester City.

Last summer, the only Sky Blues release worth mentioning – apart from the return of İlkay Gündoğan – was Savinho, signed from City Football Group for a reported £30 million.

However, after the sale of Julián Álvarez (81.5 million pounds), João Cancelo (21 million pounds)Liam Delap (20 million pounds), Taylor Harwood-Bellis (20 million pounds) and others, recorded a profit of around £126 million, so they can now spend the money this month.

As a result, widespread reports suggest the Citizens are close to bringing in both Abdukodir Khusanov from Lens and Eintracht Frankfurt striker Omar Marmoushbut the Egyptian striker is not the only Adler player they have their eye on.

Manchester City is targeting reinforcements in midfield

According to the report of GiveMeSportManchester City and Arsenal they ‘fight’ like Premier League rivals want to sign Frankfurt midfielder Hugo Larsson.

TEAMtalk reported back in November that Liverpool and Tottenham they also have a 20-year-old on their radar, who, according to the same letter, valued at around £70 million.

Larsson joined Allsvenskan champions Malmö as a 12-year-old, winning the home double and made 61 appearances for the sky blues, before he joined Bundesliga Club Frankfurt for a reported €9m (£8m) in May 2023.

To be fair, he quickly established himself as a key figure in Dino Toppmöller’s side, racking up 1,515 minutes in all competitions before the winter break, starts 18 of 24 gamesscoring four goals, two of which were in the game European league.

Despite what he has eight senior international appearances in his name, Per Lagerström from Viaplay claimed to be one of the “hottest” prospects in the Bundesliga.

Keeping with the theme of excellent reviews, data analyst Ben Mattinson on Twitter believes that Larsson is stylistically “very similar [Jude] Bellingham“, which is high praise indeed, so let’s see how the duo compare?

Of course, Bellingham’s offensive numbers far outnumber Larsson’s, with the caveat that Englishman scoring 36 goals since the start of last season, compared to the Swede’s six, though Real Madrid the man greatly exceeded his xG, doing so by more than 12 goals, suggesting this may not be sustainable.

Where Larsson compares to Bellingham is when it comes to passing and out-of-possession stats, recording very similar pass completion, touch and tackle percentages of 90 each, while the Frankfurt midfielder has the edge in interceptions.

That last point highlights why Larsson could prove to be such a shrewd addition for Manchester City.

The citizens have not been the same since then Rodri he tore his ACL in September, with Pep Guardiola calling the Spaniard “irreplaceable”, adding that no other team “playing with a central midfielder who has the Ballon d’Or”.

So far, none Mateo Kovačić neither have Gündoğan been able to fill the void left by Rodri, but Larsson has all the credentials to suggest he could do just that, so his signature could spark the beleaguered champions into life.