Man City plan repeat raid by snatching another key player from same Prem side as last summer

Manchester City are planning to deprive Wolves of another key player, as they have reportedly ‘held talks’ with the club over the signing of Rayan Ait-Nouri.

The 22-year-old has shown himself to be one of the Premier attacking full-backs in Europe of late. As per fbref stats, he ranks very highly among positional peers in top-five leagues for non-penalty xG, successful take-ons and pass completion.

Those traits are the hallmarks of a good attacking full-back, and that the Wolves man has scored three goals – his highest tally of his career – and assisted twice this season shows his skills are improving.

While some attacking full-backs are reliant on that part of their game, and see defending as less important, that is not the case for Ait-Nouri.

Indeed, he makes almost three tackles per 90 minutes, which is better than more than 80 per cent of full-backs in Europe’s top-five leagues.

It’s no surprise that he has been courted by Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea for the summer.

For a couple of those clubs, improving at left-back seems a necessity, with United struggling to keep one fit all season and Chelsea potentially culling all but Ben Chilwell in that position.

But it’s also an area in which Manchester City could improve, and they are said to have already made tracks towards the signing of Ait-Nouri.

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City have held talks over Ait-Nouri

According to Football Transfers, the Citizens have ‘held talks’ with Wolves over the potential signing of the Algeria international.

It’s believed their relationship with his agent, Jorge Mendes, could help a deal to run smoothly. However, it’s not clear what the result of initial conversations with Wolves were, only that they’ll ask for £60million for him.

City’s desire to sign the thriving left-back comes as they have played central defenders Josko Gvardiol and Nathan Ake there often this season, with Pep Guardiola clearly not trusting his own signing, Sergio Gomez.

The Spaniard is seemingly disillusioned and it’s said he is ‘looking to leave’ the Etihad in the summer.

It’s believed discussions over Ait-Nouri have included the possibility that Gomez could be sent to Wolves as part of a player-plus-cash deal.

Wolves could lose second major asset to City

If City do manage to get Ait-Nouri, they’d have deprived Wolves of two major assets one summer after another.

They snared Matheus Nunes from the Molineux outfit last summer in a £53million move after one season at the club, in which he was one of the very best assets they had, though he’s found it hard to break into City’s best side.

Ait-Nouri is just as important to Wolves, and it’s therefore no surprise that City want him for themselves.

If they get him, it would be a blow to the 11th-placed side, but they are two places higher than they finished with Nunes in the side last season, so they could conceivably cope just as well after losing Ait-Nouri.

The sale of Pedro Neto might be more damaging, and City are one of the sides looking at him, too.

READ MORE: Man City transfers: Five players to sell this summer, including signing Guardiola completely misjudged