Pep can land his own Thiago Silva as Man City plot bid for "incredible" £54m "monster" - opinion

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has coached a lot of players during his managerial career, including a lot of top-quality defenders.

Players such as Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, Jerome Boateng, David Alaba and Vincent Kompany have all experienced what it’s like to play and win trophies under Guardiola’s guidance.

One defender that has had a lot of success throughout his career that hasn’t played under the City boss is Thiago Silva.

With a grand total of 596 club appearances under his belt, the centre-back has won numerous domestic and European trophies, the most of which came during his days at Paris Saint-Germain.

Now that the latest summer transfer window has opened for business, it seems as though the Citizens could have the chance to land what could be their own version of the highly decorated Chelsea defender.

Earlier this month, City were named as one of the clubs that Juventus centre-back Matthijs de Ligt could move to this summer should he leave the Italian club.

According to Football Transfers, Silva is at the top of their similar players list to De Ligt, with both having spent time playing in Italy.

Having played in 117 games each for Juventus and his previous club Ajax, the Dutchman has scored 21 goals and delivered ten assists across all competitions for both sides.

This shows that despite only being 22, the defender still has a significant amount of top-level experience under his belt.

In terms of his defensive talent, throughout his three Serie A campaigns with the Old Lady, De Ligt has racked up 69 successful tackles, 137 blocks, 84 interceptions and 371 clearances.

In comparison with Silva, he ended Chelsea’s latest Premier League season with more blocks (65) and clearances (114) than any of his