Well it did not take Zlatan Ibrahimovic long to show his displeasure at Paris Saint-Germain’s activity this summer.
PSG replaced Carlo Ancelotti with Laurent Blanc 18 days ago and then went and spent £53m to sign Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani away from Napoli. Two moves that Ibra apparently disagrees with.
The 31-year-old former Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona and AC Milan striker has told his agent, Mino Raiola, to find him a new team.
Raiola was in Madrid on Thursday talking to Carlo Ancelotti about moving to the Spanish giants, but that move cannot happen as Paris Saint-Germain made Ancelotti sign an agreement that he could not sign any PSG for a year after moving to the Bernabeu.
The challenge for Ibra and Raiola is that the number of clubs that could afford even the “reduced” wages he wants of £250,000 per-week is very small, and he has already played for most of them.
That leaves the Premier League and the wealth of Manchester City and potentially Chelsea. They are the only two clubs left (unless Ibra wants to move to Anzhi) that can afford his wages and ironically both have a need for a top class striker.
Man City’s need is more acute than Chelsea’s as they have only two strikers in their squad, Aguero and Dzeko. A £17m transfer fee and £250,000 per-week wage is pocket change to City’s owners, as it basically is what Carlos Tevez was on before he was sold to Juventus this summer.
The big unknown is whether Ibrahimovic and his family would want to move to the Premier League and Manchester. The British press in the past has dismissive of Ibrahimovic’s accomplishments as he has never done well against England or English clubs. That changed with this wonder goal against England last year:
The other big unknown is whether Ibra’s wife, who does not like Paris, would be happy with a move to Manchester, which isn’t exactly Milan or London.
If Man City can pull off this deal and sign Ibrahimovic they would have to be considered the favourites to win the Premier League title next season. I like the signings of Fernandinho from Shakhtar Donetsk and Jesus Navas from Sevilla. Add in a world class striker like Ibra, and the odds will be very much in City’s favour that they will be lifting the Premier League trophy again next May.
