If Manchester City were delighted to receive €49m up front from Bayern Munich for Leroy Sane this summer, they will be even more thrilled to have secured his replacement for less than half of that.
Ferran Torres looks to be a steal for the Blues and Txiki Begiristain, their director of football. One of the most promising Spanish youngsters that at the age of 20 already has three years of La Liga games behind him as well as Champions League experience did not have a shortage of interest from the best clubs in Europe – especially now his contract is in its final 12 months – but the Blues appear to have won the race.
To land Torres for an initial €23m, not only less than half of what they sold Sane for but also almost half of what they paid Schalke for a 20-year-old Sane back in 2016, should certainly help the club to move on from two successive years of exhausting games with Bayern Munich.
People don’t necessarily have to be replaced – Pep Guardiola managed to cope when his No.2 Domenec Torrent left in 2018 – but if they are not then their absence is easy to highlight when things don’t go to plan; the failure to sign Harry Maguire or another suitable defender when Vincent Kompany left last year has been an easy stick to beat the team with whenever they have lost.
Man City signing Ferran Torres can help Kevin De Bruyne lead new era after David Silva
Having Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez settled in the squad should ease the pressure on Torres as he adjusts to life both in a new league and under a manager whose system demands some getting used to. The expectations on the 20-year-old will not be as high as they were for Sane after a few years at the club, which should make the demands of replacing the Bayern man less of an issue.
Yet Torres can undeniably help Guardiola answer his next big question.
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When he arrived at the Etihad everyone waited to see if he could conquer English football as he did in Spain and Germany. Two years and a Centurions campaign later, could he show it wasn’t a flash in the pan? One domestic clean sweep later, the manager’s critics were forced to move the goalposts again.
As he prepares to make City his longest job in football, Guardiola is being asked if he can revitalise a team that surrendered their Premier League crown to Liverpool and has shown worrying signs of mortality this season.
Signing a dynamic 20-year-old winger, just as he did four years ago with a player that helped him take English football by storm, appears to be an excellent start.
