{"id":1564,"date":"2017-12-31T07:16:01","date_gmt":"2017-12-31T06:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matchplug.com\/blog\/?p=1564"},"modified":"2025-03-25T06:23:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T05:23:37","slug":"manchester-city-to-swoop-on-barcelona-defender-next-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-to-swoop-on-barcelona-defender-next-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester City to swoop on Barcelona defender next month"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pep Guradiola is set to sign Barcelona defender Samuel Umtiti for \u00a350 million next month.<\/p>\n<p>The Catalan boss is looking for a new defender after his star men, Vincent Kompany and John Stones suffered injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola knows that an injury to Nicolas Otamendi would mean he would have no other defender he can play and that could derail his team&#8217;s momentum.<\/p>\n<p>The Cityzen&#8217;s missed out on the signing of Virgil van Dijk last week after Liverpool pipped them to the \u00a375 million transfer of the Dutch man.<\/p>\n<p>Samuel Umtiti&#8217;s release clause was revealed to be just \u00a350 million earlier this week, a sum which is not too much for any top European side to shell out considering his form with the Catalans before he got injured.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile Sergio Aguero could be playing his last season at the Etihad after it emerged that he wants to return home to Argentina.<\/p>\n<p>Aguero has scored 15 goals already this season, but feels Guardiola does not rate him high enough, and he prefers a move back home to Independiente than joining Real Madrid.<\/p>\n<p>He is adored by the club&#8217;s fans as his transfer fee to Atletico Madrid help them renovate their stadia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pep Guradiola is set to sign Barcelona defender Samuel Umtiti for \u00a350 million next month. The Catalan boss is looking for a new defender after his star men, Vincent Kompany and John Stones suffered injuries. Guardiola knows that an injury to Nicolas Otamendi would mean he would have no other defender he can play and that could derail his team&#8217;s momentum. The Cityzen&#8217;s missed out on the signing of Virgil van Dijk last week after Liverpool pipped them to the \u00a375 million transfer of the Dutch man. Samuel Umtiti&#8217;s release clause was revealed to be just \u00a350 million earlier this week, a sum which is not too much for any top European side to shell out considering his form with the Catalans before he got injured. Meanwhile Sergio Aguero could be playing his last season at the Etihad after it emerged that he wants to return home to Argentina. Aguero has scored 15 goals already this season, but feels Guardiola does not rate him high enough, and he prefers a move back home to Independiente than joining Real Madrid. He is adored by the club&#8217;s fans as his transfer fee to Atletico Madrid help them renovate their stadia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18],"tags":[32,33,115],"class_list":["post-1564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-transfer-news","tag-barcelona","tag-manchester-city","tag-samuel-umtiti"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Manchester City to swoop on Barcelona defender next month - Matchplug Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-to-swoop-on-barcelona-defender-next-month\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Manchester City to swoop on Barcelona defender next month - Matchplug Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pep Guradiola is set to sign Barcelona defender Samuel Umtiti for \u00a350 million next month. The Catalan boss is looking for a new defender after his star men, Vincent Kompany and John Stones suffered injuries. Guardiola knows that an injury to Nicolas Otamendi would mean he would have no other defender he can play and that could derail his team&#8217;s momentum. The Cityzen&#8217;s missed out on the signing of Virgil van Dijk last week after Liverpool pipped them to the \u00a375 million transfer of the Dutch man. Samuel Umtiti&#8217;s release clause was revealed to be just \u00a350 million earlier this week, a sum which is not too much for any top European side to shell out considering his form with the Catalans before he got injured. Meanwhile Sergio Aguero could be playing his last season at the Etihad after it emerged that he wants to return home to Argentina. Aguero has scored 15 goals already this season, but feels Guardiola does not rate him high enough, and he prefers a move back home to Independiente than joining Real Madrid. 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