With Manchester City’s signing of Borussia Dortmund forward Erling Haaland all but officially announced, the Premier League champions have their vision set on progressing further in the transfer market. The latest player to be linked with a move to the blue side of Manchester is Leicester City’s Ben Nelson, a young centre-back who’d bolster City’s homegrown quota.
The young English defender has been pushing to break into the Leicester first team this season. However, with City’s interest in the youngster, he could yet never make an official appearance for the Foxes. That said, with Jannick Vestergaard set to be offloaded by Brendan Rodgers this summer, a clear pathway into the senior set-up has opened itself up to Nelson, which could tempt him to stay amid City’s interest.
City currently possess 8 registered homegrown players within their squad. This is the absolute minimum required to be able to register a Premier League squad and thus City feel the need to address this issue over the summer. This could become all the more difficult with veteran keeper Scott Carson departing and Raheem Sterling potentially also heading towards the exit door.
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As such, it is unsurprising that Guardiola’s side are looking to bring in some homegrown players for the 2022/23 Premier League season. The Champions League semi-finalists have also reportedly been keeping tabs on Leeds United’s Kalvin Phillips, a homegrown talent who’d also provide competition for Rodri amid Fernandinho’s departure this summer.
Thus, Ben Nelson of Leicester has some thinking to do. He’s a highly rated defender within the England youth set-up, but if he were to join City, he’d likely just be filling up the numbers with regard to the club’s homegrown quota. On the other hand, at Leicester, first-team opportunities could present themselves to the 18-year-old. Nevertheless, it is clear that City have issues to address concerning their homegrown talents in the coming weeks.
Topics: Manchester City, Transfers, Leicester City
Robert Worthington