Manchester City pondering move for £15m-rated Dortmund defender Manuel Akanji
- Simon Wilkes
- 30 August 2022
Manchester City are reportedly interested in signing Borussia Dortmund centre-half Manuel Akanji, who is in the final year of his contract and is believed to be available for a fee around £15million.
City are looking for defensive reinforcements following injuries to Nathan Ake and Aymeric Laporte and would like to sign the 27-year-old before Thursday's transfer deadline.
However, there is no deal yet in place, according to reports.
Boss Pep Guardiola said "I don't know what is going to happen" when asked on Tuesday whether there would be any more signings before the transfer deadline.
Akanji, a Switzerland international, is in the final year of his contract and is rated at around £15m by Dortmund.
The former team-mate of Erling Haaland has made over 150 appearances for Dortmund, including 36 last season.
If City can get the deal done, he would be their sixth summer signing, following the arrivals of Haaland, Julian Alvarez, Kalvin Phillips, Sergio Gomez and Stefan Ortega.
Guardiola, meanwhile, knows his side cannot continue climbing mountains in the Premier League to win games.
The champions came back from 3-1 down at Newcastle to draw 3-3 and 2-0 behind at home to Crystal Palace to win 4-2, mainly due to the scoring power of Erling Haaland.
But Guardiola says it is not sustainable to score four or five goals to win a game.
"We have to try to avoid it," he said ahead of the visit of Nottingham Forest.
"In one time it is good because always in the past when we were down it was difficult to come back and now we proved last season and this season we can do it but we have to try and avoid it as much as possible.
"We have to manage this situation. It is risky, one day we will not be able to come back."
Asked whether his side's defensive frailties were because City had become more attacking this season with Haaland in his team, Guardiola added: "It is completely the opposite, as far away from your goal you are you are much safer.
"We have proved this in six years as part of winning the Premier League we have conceded few goals playing this way. We are going to adjust something, it is normal in this period.
"We are scoring a lot of goals as well and at the same time we are conceding a lot and if we don't stop that it will be difficult. You can't always score four or five goals to win a game for a few months. We have to be better."
