Manchester City want Harry Kane
A report by The Sun (h/t The Express) has mentioned that Manchester City are looking to secure the transfer of Harry Kane from Tottenham Hotspur. The Premier League champions are so eager to sign the Englishman that they are prepared to offer Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus as a makeweight.
The striker, who would otherwise cost City £150million, has hinted that he wants to play for the Citizens by mentioning that Kevin de Bruyne is the one player he wants to team up with. Kane is 27 and is yet to win a single team trophy with Spurs in his career.
Man City are without Sergio Aguero
Sergio Aguero left Manchester City to join Barcelona after the UEFA Champions League final, as a free agent. The Argentine striker spent 10 successful years at the club where he is also their all-time record goalscorer with 260 goals. Replacing the 32-year-old is definitely going to be a task, with Guardiola even saying that the club cannot replace him.
260 goals in 10 seasons means an average of 26 goals every season, and that is considering he was not used regularly by Guardiola this season. Replicating such numbers again would be a tough task for any striker.
The only other reputed striker in their roster, Jesus, scored just 9 times in the 22 league starts for the club this season. And if the report is referred to, then City’s intention to swap Jesus in a deal for Kane clearly shows Guardiola does not see Jesus as Aguero’s replacement.
Harry Kane will add goals to City
There is no doubt that Kane is a proven goalscorer. This season’s golden boot award was the third of his career and it cannot be denied that he is as potent a goalscorer like Sergio Aguero. Consider the scoring records in the Premier League of the two hitmen. Kane has 166 league goals for Spurs, scoring a goal every 122 minutes.
Aguero, on the other hand, netted 184 times for City with a goal every 108 minutes. However, City had no reputed No.9 in their top four goalscorers list in all competitions this season. And going by the statistics of Kane’s consistency, he will surely add goals to City this side by the bucketload as he has done for Spurs consistently.
The problems without a striker
Manchester City, as noted above, had no strikers in the top four of their goalscorers list this season. This is because of the lack of consistent starts for Aguero and Jesus. Instead, City opted to mix it up at times, with Guardiola starting a number of midfielders and wingers as a false-9 in many games.
This is one of the reasons why Ilkay Gundogan and Phil Foden are their two top scorers in this campaign.
One such instance of the false-9 debacles came in the biggest game of the club’s entire history – the UCL final against Chelsea on 29th May. Guardiola started Kevin de Bruyne as a false-9 and the whole team ended up having just one shot on target all game, which came from Sterling. (h/t SofaScore)
It remains to be seen if City’s wingers and midfielders can keep contributing with the same vigour. For instance, this was the first time that Gundogan got 10+ senior league goals in his entire career. Hence, there are a number of reasons why Kane will supplement and complement City’s already stacked team to help them continue their dominance.
