Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola Eyes Bayern Munich Defender While Managing Barcelona's Transfer Interests

It has been a busy stretch for Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola regarding the transfer season. It has been reported that Barcelona is looking into signing one of his younger talents Eric Garcia. Despite this, Guardiola himself has eyed several key players around the market, in particular, Bayern Munich’s David Alaba as an option.

Per Express, Alaba has been targeted as one of Guardiola’s main choices in terms of increasing his team’s overall strength. This year’s Premier League featured Liverpool making history by breaking a 30-year drought and Guardiola is looking to bounce back in the succeeding seasons. While Manchester City remains as a formidable team, Guardiola wants the best for his club moving forward.

The caliber that Alaba has will be a major help for the team given how the 28-year-old has shown his versatility as a defender. The former Champions League winner has proven throughout his career that he is one of the best in the sport. In 382 appearances with Bayern Munich, he has scored a total of 31 goals and coupled it with 48 assists. On the defensive end, he is putting up career numbers of 1.1 tackles an outing coupled with 1.4 clearances a game.

Adding someone of Alaba’s caliber will be pivotal for Manchester City given how Barcelona has already looked into Garcia. The potential of Garcia as a defender is high given how he has already garnered comparisons to Gerard Pique.

The way Garcia plays serves as an asset for any team and it is something that Guardiola understands. Given how there is only one more year left on his contract, Guardiola sees the value in his trusty defender. Per Manchester Evening News, the Manchester City manager responded to the speculation of Garcia being a target of Barcelona.

“If they want him they must call him and we are going to try to convince him to stay here for many, many, many years,” Guardiola said.

In nine Premier League appearances this season, Garcia has shown his defensive strengths that have proven his worth for the team.

“I am confident he will stay but at the end, it is his decision. He knows we want him but it is the same with Leroy [Sane],” Guardiola added.

To develop a prospect like Garcia is a major boost for any organization given how much he brings on the field. This situation highlights the importance of signing Alaba for Manchester City as the veteran can step up for the possible exit of Garcia.

“We want him but if he doesn't want to stay we cannot do anything else. He knows, his agent knows, his family knows that we want him,” Guardiola concluded.

It will be interesting to see how Manchester City moves forward with their roster and if they can manage to pull a deal for Alaba.