Manchester City’s first signing of the January 2023 transfer window

Another Argentine?

The Premier League side from Manchester are all set to complete their first signing of the January 2023 transfer window and bring the Argentinian midfielder Maximo Perrone to England. Despite Pep Guardiola, Manchester City’s manager telling the media that the club is not going to make any high-profile signings for the first team in this transfer window, reports and rumours keep showing the ongoing background work regarding the talent and the players in which the club might be interested in future. 

How did signing an Argentine work out last season for City?

In last year’s winter transfer window, Manchester City signed Julian Alvarez the Argentina and River Plate forward. Alvarez proved to be a great talent and played in the world cup from his national team as well, resulting in Argentina winning the world cup featuring Lionel Messi winning his first-ever world cup. Even though Alvarez is a second choice forward for Man City because of the goal scoring machine Erling Haaland, the Alvarez deal also proved to be a huge success for the club as the forward managed to score 7 goals in his 21 games. Haaland was signed by Man City from Borussia Dortmund in the summer transfer window before the 2022/23 season kicked off.

About the deal.

This year, Manchester City are about to close a deal on another Argentina player, keeping fingers crossed for their central midfield depth. Maximo Perrone will join his new club next season after the deal is closed. The deal is worth 8 million dollars plus taxes, and it is clear that the 19 year old Argentinian top talent will directly join Man City instead of other clubs owned by the City Football Group. This was confirmed and tweeted on Sunday by the Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, who is known to be one of the most authentic and reliable sources of football transfer news.  

Why was Manchester City eyeing this move?

Considering the German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan’s contract expires at the end of the season and his possible departure because his future at the club remains uncertain, Man City require more backup players and made a move on Maximo Perrone and currently have a verbal agreement with his current club, Velez Sarsfield. Perrone will also fill the vacant space of an excellent backup defensive midfielder allowing some breathing room for Rodri. Reports and rumours also reveal that Kalvin Philipps, City’s new signing for the defensive midfield, is having issues with his new club and is most likely to leave this summer.

Maximo Perrone’s style of play.

Perrone has a rate of 3.29 tackles per game in his 33 games played so far. Due to his ability to play deep in the midfield and direct the state of gameplay and pace of the game, fans have compared Maximo Perrone to Barcelona’s Frenkie De Jong and Madrid’s Federico Valverde. Maximo Perrone currently plays for Velez Sarsfield in Argentina’s Primera Division. At international level, he plays for Argentina’s under 20 national team and will depart for Man City after the South American U20 Championship.