Nathan Ake call enhances Man City reputation in the transfer market

One part of Manchester City's stance on transfers that is routinely forgotten comes down to value. Txiki Begiristain and his recruitment team have red lines that they will not cross when it comes down to what they are prepared to bring targets in for and let them leave for.

It has been seen in action in recent years in failed pursuits of Jorginho, Harry Maguire and Frenkie de Jong. On each of those occasions, Pep Guardiola wanted a signing but either the transfer fee or the wages went beyond what City's sporting director was willing to sanction.

And it has also been present when selling: just because a player wants to leave does not mean the Blues turn into a charity. Leroy Sane and Bayern Munich found that out in 2019 and Barcelona did with Eric Garcia in 2020; City were willing to considerably lower their demands for Garcia but ultimately that still proved more than the Catalan club wanted to pay so it worked out better value to keep the defender rather than sell him for such a paltry sum.

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It should not really come as a surprise then that Nathan Ake will remain a City player for this season. The club were only willing to sell him if Chelsea came up with at least £50m and Begiristain was able to have a replacement lined up so that Guardiola wasn't any worse off with his defensive options.

As previously reported, the second part of this was even more difficult than normal because of the hard sell for any good defender to potentially sit on the bench for three months before a World Cup. Nevertheless, word on the Chelsea side for weeks has been that the West London club were confident of the deal being done - raising the prospect that