The ideal defender signing who could be perfect final piece of Man City’s summer window puzzle

We hope Manchester City’s hatewatchers enjoyed Pep Guardiola’s banter era of six months or so, because the Citizens have meant business this season and a new right-back is the only major need still remaining on their shopping list.

Kevin de Bruyne and Kyle Walker have been high-profile departures, but City have splashed the fourth-highest net spend of the Premier League in response (less than £10 million behind Manchester United) and look perfectly placed to challenge hard for a seventh title in nine years. Tijjani Reijnders is one of few players in the world with the potential to fill De Bruyne’s boots while Rayan Cherki was coveted by most of Europe this summer and adds another dynamic option to an already deep list in the line behind Erling Haaland.

Rayan Ait-Nouri is an intriguing signing who’s already taken the Premier League by storm and James Trafford is heir apparent to Ederson at just 22, while 18-year-old sensation Sverre Nypan may not play much of a role in the coming season but was one of the hottest prospects on the market this window.

Yet to play a formal pre-season game, Manchester City’s early additions showed signs of promise at the Club World Cup before their premature exit at the hands of Al-Hilal, a match where right-back Matheus Nunes struggled mightly against his less prestigious opponents. Newcastle successfully warded off Manchester City’s interest in Tino Livramento earlier this summer meaning Guardiola is yet to find an upgrade there but in a barren market at the position, Nottingham Forest’s Ola Aina may be the perfect signing.

Ola Aina’s star audition enough for Pep Guardiola

Whether or not Manchester City were eyeing up a move for Aina before lining up opposite Jeremy Doku in March, he gave a perfect audition to Pep Guardiola with an immaculate display at a sun-soaked City Ground. Only three players made more tackles and interceptions than the Nigerian, while Nunes and Rico Lewis combined could only manage half of Aina’s number, and that’s not counting the numerous times a City attacker cut inside early rather than attempt to take on the buccaneering defender.

Despite Doku seeing plenty of the ball, City could get nothing going down that flank until injury time, by which time Aina had played a pivotal role in Forest’s winning goal - for which Morgan Gibbs-White’s inch-perfect zipline pass and Callum Hudson-Odoi’s audacious finish past Ederson stole the plaudits somewhat.

As a Forest set piece move broke down and the visitors pumped up a long ball for Marmoush to chase, Aina was the first react and got his touch spot on, in a situation where the Egyptian would’ve had just one defender and Matz Sels to beat if Aina was any less than perfect.

Not only did he get the ball away from danger, Aina brushed off the challenge of Marmoush and played it back to his keeper, then three passes later Hudson-Odoi was celebrating in front of the Trent End. Within days of the game, reports were emerging from the Etihad that Manchester City were interested in signing Aina, but can they actually prise him from the fingers of Evangelos Marinakis?

Aina can make up for Livramento failure

Aina signed a three-year deal earlier this summer which could keep him in Nottingham into his 30s, but that shouldn’t stop Manchester City sounding out Forest’s fortitude. Valued at €22m (£19m) by Transfermarkt, even if Nottingham Forest do want to inflate the price at the same rate Newcastle have pushed up Livramento’s - quoting Manchester City £80m from a €40m (£35m) base - it would be well worth it for an upgrade to the back four.

City wouldn’t just be spending that amount of money on a player based on 90 minutes, of course. Aina was one of the stars of the show in the Tricky Trees’ inspiring, then controversial march to European football. Aina was in the top 6% of full-backs in Europe’s top five leagues last year for defensive actions that led to a goal and ranked even higher for ball recoveries at almost six per game per FBRef.com.

He had a remarkably similar number and distribution of touches around the pitch as Livramento and their take-on success rate was almost identical (45.8% and 44.6%), while they created 49 and 43 shots respectively last season from live-ball passes. While Livramento appears totally out of reach at least for another season, Aina’s 28 years of age mean he could be more attainable.

Forest won’t have forever to cash in on the Nigerian whereas Livramento should be competing at the top level for at least another decade, and if Marinakis is serious about turning the Midland club into a powerhouse in the Premier League he will need to perfect profiting off players who have developed at the City Ground.

Aina would be far from the worst place to start and would help Manchester City to finish their transformation from the depths of last season.