Rayan Ait-Nouri to Man City transfer handed one huge concern ahead of £33.7m deal

Manchester City have been handed the lowdown on imminent new arrival Rayan Ait-Nouri and why there are doubts over his move to Pep Guardiola's side.

The Manchester Evening Newsunderstands that City have agreed a £33.7million (€40m) deal for the Premier League star, with Wolves potentially putting additional payments into the deal. Ait Nouri is set to complete his move to the Etihad Stadium after returning from international duty with Algeria.

His arrival in East Manchester will see City sign their first left-back in six years. Guardiola ended the 2024/25 campaign playing No.10 academy product Nico O'Reilly in that position. Centre-backs Josko Gvardiol and Nathan Ake have also been used there since Alex Zinchenko's moved to Arsenal in 2022.

One person who has followed Ait-Nouri's career at Molineux closely is Wolves correspondent for the Express and Star, Liam Keen. While acknowledging the 24-year-old's undoubted talent, he shared doubts over his ability to make the step up to Guardiola's team.

"Ait-Nouri's got a lot of talent," he said. "He came as a very young lad, and he's still pretty young now and built his way into becoming a regular Premier League player.

"He's got a lot of really impressive qualities going forward, in particular. I think wing-back rather than full-back is definitely his position because defensively he can switch off, he can struggle, but he's got bags of quality going forward with an eye for a goal and an assist.

"He's got excellent close control and can take players on - he's an excellent dribbler. So all of those things are reasons why Man City are moving for him.

"I do think that he's gonna have a little bit of a challenge in making that step up. I do think it's a massive step up for him,