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As the Premier League season winds down, the transfer rumor mill has heated right up. With Championship Sunday less than a week away now, it’s time to cast an eye at the player movement market.
There is no shortage of rumors when it comes to the transfer market. Follow this series throughout the summer as I look at the likelihood of some of the transfer rumors doing the rounds and whether I think they will work out.
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As the Premier League season winds down, the transfer rumor mill has heated right up. With Championship Sunday less than a week away now, it’s time to cast an eye at the player movement market.
There is no shortage of rumors when it comes to the transfer market. Follow this series throughout the summer as I look at the likelihood of some of the transfer rumors doing the rounds and whether I think they will work out.
Follow paulmbanks
West Ham plays their final home fixture of a season that promised so much this weekend. They host champions elect Manchester City.
Believe it or not, the last time these two sides faced each other at the Olympic Stadium, David Moyes’ men walked away with the win. That was in the fourth round of this season’s Carabao Cup. That match would finish 0-0 after extra time. In the ensuing penalty shootout, City could not recover from Phil Foden’s miss and lost 5-3.
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Manchester City need just four points to clinch the Premier League title, and once they get there it will mark the fourth time in five seasons that they have won this specific trophy. But in order to get there, Pep Guardiola and his side will need to overcome a genuine injury crisis in the back. Nathan Ake is the only central defender that is currently close to full fitness, and he’s still jsut semi-fit.
Aymeric Laporte and Fernandinho got hurt in the 5-1 rout of Wolves on Wednesday, and here is what the gaffer had to say of their status at his presser just now.
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West Ham United welcome Premier League champions-elect and goal-scoring machines in Manchester City to the Olympic Stadium this weekend. Both sides have plenty on the line in this fixture. City must win to maintain their stranglehold on the EPL title, whereas the Hammers must win in order to qualify for the Europa League next season.
West Ham snapped a four-game losing streak last weekend when they smashed Norwich City 4-0. A brace from enigmatic Algerian Said Benrahma was supplemented by goals from Michail Antonio and Manuel Lanzini. The victory ensured The Irons kept themselves in the top six battle for the 21/22 season.
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Manchester City have certainly responded well to their UEFA Champions League exit. After suffering yet another European heartbreak, they have gone on another domestic tear, winning back-to-back 5-0, and then following that up with a 5-1 win over Wolves in midweek.
City have further cemented their EPL superiority, with a 15-1 aggregate over that three-match stretch. They now have, metaphorically, nine of their ten fingers on the league title trophy.
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Mark this date down, because today we have reached the end of the Erling Haaland leaving Borussia Dortmund and joining Manchester City transfer saga. The club released a statement confirming his arrival only minutes ago. Man City won the bidding war for the superstar Norwegian, but according to multiple reports all over Europe, the Haaland transfer fee will be much less than had been expected.
The Next Big Thing in world football, the potential co-heir (Kylian Mbappe is the other) to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, has joined his new team. It is “here we go” time, as the 2022 summer transfer window truly kicked off today.
Follow paulmbanksFor their Wednesday clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has a defensive injury crisis here to with. In the back line, John Stones, Kyle Walker and Ruben Dias are now out of commission for the last three games of the season. So it will be interesting to see what options Pep selects in that position group when his club takes to the pitch in midweek at the Midlands.
The good news for City is that they gained two more points on Liverpool in the title race over the weekend, and that means they’re moving that much closer to getting their hands on the trophy once again.
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As Manchester City heads into a midweek clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday, we have a ton of storylines to discuss, and these are in addition to those that pertain to the Premier League title race. The Erling Haaland acquisition will soon be announced, and you can read more on that here. And this deal has prompted Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp to state his belief that the Haaland contract will “set new levels” in the transfer market.
In an exclusive interview with Sky, the German said: “I signed a new contract knowing that City would not stop developing. It’s not about City to define if we can be happy or not, it’s about us and what we can make of it.
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We have known for quite some time that Erling Haaland was leaving Borussia Dortmund this summer. And we’ve also known, for awhile that it was Manchester City whom had won the bidding war for the Norwegian hit man. Therefore the reports in Germany, England, and all over the rest of Europe stating that Haaland has already said his Dortmund goodbyes are not shocking in any way, shape or form.
The Next Big Thing in world football, the potential co-heir (Kylian Mbappe is the other) to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, has reportedly already passed his Manchester City medical. It is indeed “here we go” time.
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Newly crowned Spanish champions, Real Madrid, will look to overcome a 4-3 deficit against Manchester City at the Santiago Bernabeu. The second leg of this Champions League semi-final fixture has a lot to live up to. The first league was an instant European classic.
Manchester City has won their last three European fixtures against Real Madrid. Only two sides have ever won four European fixtures in a row against Los Blancos and no side has achieved it in 20 years.
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If you’re a Madrista, then you obviously didn’t like the result last week when Manchester City hosted Real Madrid in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League semifinal tie. If you’re anyone else who’s in to footy though, you most likely did. City bested Real in a back-and-forth, exciting affair that resulted in a 4-3 final score last Tuesday night.
This match was a pleasurable experience for both City supporters and neutrals alike. Now comes the reverse fixture, and it’s very fitting that this year’s UCL tournament has set itself up this way.
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