da spicy bet： An update has emerged on Manchester City and their plans to bolster their defensive options in the summer transfer window…
What’s the latest on Kim Min-jae to Man City?
da betcris： According to Football Insider, Pep Guardiola is now plotting a move to snap up Napoli central defender Kim Min-jae ahead of the 2023/24 campaign.
The report claims that the Citizens could hijack Bayern Munich’s attempts to sign the South Korea international, although the German side remain in pole position as it stands.
It states that the Serie A titan has a release clause in his contract, which will become active in July, that would allow the Premier League champions to snap him up for around £50m.
Where would Kim fit in at Man City?
Football Insider’s report adds that Aymeric Laporte would become surplus to requirements if the club bring in a new centre-back and Kim could be the dream replacement for the Spain international.
Although he is a right-footed player, the Napoli star has mainly been deployed on the left of a central defensive pairing with this indicating that the towering ace could slot in where the left-footed City outcast plays.
The South Korean colossus would, therefore, be an ideal signing from a positional perspective as Guardiola would be replacing a left-centre-back with another one, rather than bringing in a defender who is used to playing on the right side of the back four.
Kim's performances for the Italian champions also suggest that the 26-year-old would be an excellent signing for City this summer as he has proven himself capable of delivering superb displays week-in-week-out.
The £53k-per-week ace averaged a Sofascore rating of 7.22 across 35 Serie A outings and won an impressive 62% of his duels, whilst also having a pass success rate of 91%.
Laporte, on the other hand, averaged a Sofascore rating of 6.94 across 12 Premier League matches and was able to complete 93% of his passes while also winning 60% of his physical contests.
This suggests that Kim has the potential to be an upgrade on the current City centre-back in terms of the average standard of his performances and his ability to dominate opposition attackers in individual battles.
Both players also rank in the top 11% of players in their position for progressive passes and progressive carries per 90 over the last 365 days in Europe's top competitions.
This shows that Kim, who was once described as an "iron barrel" by teammate Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and Laporte both excel at progressing the ball out from the back, which is another reason why the Napoli star would be the dream replacement for the 29-year-old.