The £43m impending blockbuster Man City transfer that will see Newcastle United's blood boil
Manchester City seem to be on the cusp on the surprise signing of Gianluigi Donnarumma - but will it get done?
Given the circumstances – not least the fact that they have already signed a new goalkeeper this summer – the rumours suggesting that Manchester City are on the verge of signing PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma may be among the more surprising stories of the summer.
Despite helping them to win the Champions League, PSG have bought Lille goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier and have decided to move on from Donnarumma, who has already posted a frustrated farewell message to his social media accounts. Manchester United and Chelsea have been linked, but a string of reports now suggest that it’s City who are in the lead.
So will a deal for one of Europe’s best goalkeepers be completed any time soon? Is there a chance that one of Donnarumma’s other suitors signing him instead? Why are PSG so happy to move on from the Italian? And why might Newcastle United be thoroughly fed up with the entire affair despite not being in the bidding?
Why PSG are selling Gianluigi Donnarumma – and why Newcastle may feel sick about it
Donnarumma may have become a European champion, but on a purely individual level he had a relatively poor season, especially by his lofty standards. PSG’s decision to move on from him isn’t entirely arbitrary.
Across the board, the Italian’s statistical performance declined. His save percentage fell from an outstanding 80.4% in all competitions to a solid but unspectacular 70.1%. He went from preventing 10 goals more than the xG model suggests that he ‘should’ have done to conceding one more than the average goalkeeper would. His long-range distribution became less accurate.
There were still plenty of fine saves and he still possesses the preternatural ability to get down to low shots from his towering height at astonishing speed, but for once Donnarumma regressed to the mean. Chevalier, his replacement at the Parc des Princes, undeniably outperformed him.
Still, Donnarumma is only 26 years old and his levels have been so high for so long that it seems absurd to suggest that he was enduring anything more than a blip. Manchester City are bidding on a player who has been among the very best in the world for several years, and who has the capacity to make saves that most goalkeepers simply can’t get to. If they believe that it is time to move on from Ederson, it’s hard to argue with Donnarumma as a world class replacement.
A penny, however, for James Trafford’s thoughts. The young goalkeeper left the Etihad in pursuit of first-team opportunities and surely agreed to his £27m return under the impression that he would be Pep Guardiola’s first choice sooner rather than later. He may have been prepared to wait a year behind Ederson, but it’s unlikely that he envisioned the immediate arrival of Donnarumma.
And spare a thought for Newcastle United, if you will. They pursued Trafford tirelessly only to be pipped to the post, a story that has been repeated ad infinitum up on Tyneside this summer – now, it’s starting to look as though one of the deals they missed out is one that the player might take back if he could. At least Aaron Ramsdale is a respectable consolation prize.
How close are Manchester City to signing Donnarumma?
The deal is unconfirmed as yet, although L’Equipe reported on Tuesday night that Donnarumma and City had already agreed personal terms. Other media outlets suggest that there is work to be done to agree a fee, with Fabrizio Romano alleging that PSG’s initial asking price of €50m (£43.2m) is deemed to be too high. There is still some ground to be made up before a transfer can be completed.
The Italian transfer journalist also suggests that any deal would be predicated on City’s ability to find a buyer for Ederson, with the club unwilling to carry him along on his £100,000 per week wages with no plan in place to play him.
That shouldn’t be too stiff of an obstacle to overcome. Galatasaray have been interested for the past couple of months and some unconfirmed reports suggest that they made an official approach to City earlier this week. It has also been claimed that personal terms were agreed back in July, and should that fall through for any reason then there is always a chance that the Saudi Pro League could provide a lucrative answer.
The bigger question, perhaps, is whether any of City’s rivals in the Premier League will enter the fray. Both Manchester United and Chelsea were linked with a bid for Donnarumma almost immediately after it became clear that PSG were signing Chevalier, after all.
Chelsea, it appears, are out of the running, either satisfied with the current goalkeeping group or simply preferring to focus their spending on other areas. Donnarumma also doesn’t fit their business-focused, youth-first recruitment strategy – he would become the first player over the age of 25 that Chelsea have signed since their first season under the current ownership, and likely force them to compromise on a wage structure far more restrictive than that seen in the Roman Abramovich era.
Manchester United may well be interested, but desperately need to sell some players before they can continue their summer spending and if they can offload the likes of Alejandro Garnacho and Antony, then it is probable that they spend their remaining funds on a midfielder such as Carlos Baleba.
They would also need to find a buyer for André Onana, and there is no immediate suggestion that anyone is in the market at an appropriate price. Saudi sides have been suggested, but that alleged interest has yet to result in tangible negotiations. As it stands, it looks likely that Onana is Manchester United’s number one come September.
It looks for all the world as though Manchester City will start the season with two new goalkeepers, one of whom may be less than happy with the way that events have unfolded – and at least one rival Premier League team that simply want the summer to end.