Man City may have to repeat Eric Garcia call in transfer window

The year is 2020 and Barcelona have turned a Manchester City player's head without having the funds to secure a transfer for him.

Pep Guardiola had been purring over the combination of Eric Garcia and Aymeric Laporte at the heart of his defence the previous season, but the Catalan club came calling for a player who had caused such upset by swapping La Masia for Manchester a few years earlier. Garcia had grown up under Guardiola but - like the manager himself - his heart still lay at the Camp Nou.

City's hierarchy understood that better than most, and as well as allowing unhappy players to leave they have been more willing than most to accommodate this when Barcelona are involved. Plans to move John Stones on that summer were shelved in the expectation that Garcia would go.

Also read: Pep Guardiola sends message to Kalvin Phillips over unused sub role vs Liverpool

However, that relied on Barcelona making an acceptable bid for a player recognised as one of the best among his generation in Spain. Despite concessions over the price from City, the Catalans still weren't prepared to stump up anything near like a respectable offer.

What clinched City's decision to break off negotiations with Barcelona and tell Garcia he would see out the final year of his contract was the pandemic. Nobody knew how the 2020/21 season would be affected by the world health crisis, yet the Blues anticipated that they may need more bodies in the squad than Guardiola would usually allow.

So the decision was made for Garcia to stay. Ultimately, he barely played as Ruben Dias arrived and played almost every game while Stones rediscovered his form, but the Spanish defender proved a useful guarantee in the City squad when they were stretched before