Pep Guardiola surely has his beady eye on Wolves’ Ruben Neves.
The Portuguese midfielder was by-far the best player in the Championship last season, and is pretty close to being good enough to play for one of the Premier League’s ‘big six’.
His vision, passing ability and first touch, coupled with his world class set-pieces and maturity on the ball will make him a huge transfer target for the likes of Man City in the next year or so.
In Neves’ first match in the Premier League – an entertaining 2-2 against Everton – he rifled a lovely free-kick past Jordan Pickford to raise his tally to seven goals from outside of the box since his arrival from Porto last year.
And according to numerous reports, City had scouts at that match specifically to watch Neves.
So we imagine Wolves clash against City this afternoon doubled up as a scouting assignment for Guardiola and a performance audition for the young midfielder.
It’s no secret that City stalwart Fernandinho is nearing the end of his career and Guardiola is desperate for a deep-lying playmaker to take his place.
The Brazilian was simply excellent in City’s title-winning campaign last season, but surely won’t be able to continue in the same vein for much longer.
So Neves would be the perfect replacement for him, right?
There’s no doubt Guardiola would’ve liked what he saw from Neves against his side today.
In the first-half in-particular, Neves completely owned the midfield, finishing the half with the most shots (3), the most tackles (3), the most blocks (2) and the most key passes (1) out of anyone.
Will we be seeing Neves in a City shirt sometime soon? We like his chances, personally.
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