Noel Gallagher believes there is a player at Manchester City who has become ‘amazing’ now compared to when he first signed for the club.
These days, City tend to get their transfer business spot on.
Sometimes, it takes new signings a bit of time to bed in. But, unlike players at a lot of other clubs, they do tend to come good fairly quickly under Pep Guardiola.
That is perhaps no surprise, with Pep obviously one of the all-time great managers.
For City-mad singer Noel Gallagher, there is one player in the squad at the moment who has made some serious strides in recent times.
And that player, is Josko Gvardiol…
Noel Gallagher questioned Josko Gvardiol but says Man City have an ‘amazing’ player now
Gvardiol made his 39th appearance for City at the weekend in the 4-0 win over Fulham – and the Croatia international made another big impact.
He opened the scoring after some nice inter-play with Kevin De Bruyne, and then added a second in the second-half after Phil Foden had scored City’s second.
Julian Alvarez rounded things off from the penalty spot.
Gvardiol has come in for a lot of plaudits recently, with Micah Richards insisting he has been ‘brilliant’ over the last five games or so. He was great again against the Cottagers, and we are now starting to see why City paid as much as £77 million for him last summer.
It was a big fee, but it could well turn out to be a bargain if he realises his potential.
Noel Gallagher was speaking about Gvardiol this morning, and he admitted he wasn’t quite sure why the club went for him at first. But having seen him start to blossom, the singer is now delighted he rocks sky-blue.
He said: “We played Leipzig a couple of times in the Champions League, and he was the standout performer. He was great.
“When we bought him, I was like, ‘Do we need another centre-half?’, and, of course, Pep being Pep, always had him marked as a left-back, you know.
“He did struggle at the beginning of the season, but now he looks like he is one of those guys for whom the penny has dropped. He looks amazing going forward, he looks comfortable on the ball. And he is a good lad by all accounts.”
Gvardiol is on an exciting trajectory
City are sitting on a potential superstar with Gvardiol and it’s really exciting to think of the kind of level he could reach when he eventually comes into his peak.
All the signs are there that he is going to be sensational. He’s strong, brilliant at passing, has great feet and has good tactical intelligence that will get even better.
The £200,000-a-week ace is a centre-back by trade, but he’s now looking like a solid left-back. So one only knows how good he could be if he moves inside.
We don’t yet know what the plan is for Gvardiol long-term. But this very strong finish to the season simply has to mean he will be central to the manager’s plans.