Manchester City eye £50m senior Real Madrid player as Pep Guardiola has ‘no trust’ in defender

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is reportedly lacking trust in summer left-back signing Sergio Gomez and he is eager to bring in another player to add depth at full-back. 

Gomez joined City from Anderlecht in the summer, but the 22-year-old has still only managed five Premier League appearances so far, suggesting the Spanish boss doesn’t trust him yet.

According to TEAMtalk, Guardiola is in the market for cover at left-back after being unconvinced by Gomez’s performances, with Real Madrid’s Ferland Mendy top of the Manchester City manager’s shortlist. 

The report states Guardiola is unable to trust Gomez to start, hence why City have often been playing centre halves John Stones and Manuel Akanji on the right, with Joao Cancelo moving to the left.

As per The Athletic, other options City are said to be looking at are Borussia Dortmund star Raphael Guerreiro, Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell and Arsenal’s Kieran Tierney, who is backup to Oleksandr Zinchenko. 

Ferland Mendy had humble beginnings as he started his youth career at Ecquevilly EFC before joining Paris Saint-Germain. But the Frenchman never made it at PSG and turned professional at FC Mantois 78. And after cutting his teeth at Le Havre, he finally made his mark with Lyon. That is where the player captured the attention of Real Madrid.

The 27-year-old join Madrid for around £50m in July 2019, and hit the ground running at the Santiago Bernabeu. Such was the French defender’s impact that he usurped Marcelo only a few weeks after arriving at Real Madrid. And Mendy has been the first-choice left-back in the last three and a half years.

But since suffering a calf injury in April 2021, Mendy has underperformed for Real Madrid. And the player is one of the few weak links in a formidable Real Madrid squad under Carlo Ancelotti. So Los Blancos might consider cashing in on him in the summer transfer window if the opportunity presents itself.

Recent reports have linked Chelsea, Manchester United, and Paris Saint-Germain with Mendy. So the French international will have his options open if he leaves Real Madrid.