Manchester City transfer news

MANCHESTER CITY chiefs are tracking little-known Sierra Leone defender Juma Bah.Etihad scouts are keeping tabs on the teenage centre-back, who plays for Ronaldo-owned Spanish side Real Valladolid — and could make a move in the January window.Juma Bah of Real Valladolid is a target for Man CityCredit: GettyBah, 18, has made a big impression during his debut LaLiga season after being signed on loan from AIK Freetong back home.Newcastle are also believed to be interested in the 6ft 5in youngster, with Everton and Crystal Palace watching him too.The giant defender has appeared seven times for Valladolid this campaign.He began his youth career with AIK Freetong in 2021, before starring on loan at Sierra Leone National Premier League side Freetonians SLIFA.Read more football newsFOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALSBah joined Valladolid this summer, and was originally expected to play for their B side.However, he has since been fast-tracked into the first team and has already seen plenty of action, despite his tender years.When he made his debut against Real Sociedad in a 0-0 home draw – Bah made history.He became the first Sierra Leone-born player to play in the Spanish top tier.Most read in FootballMan City could be busy when the January transfer window opens.Moment Pep Guardiola launches furious F-word rant at ‘unacceptable’ Phil Foden captured in Man City documentaryBoss Pep Guardiola will be keen to address his club’s recent slump, which saw his team go six games without a win in all competitions.During that horror run, City conceded a whopping 17 goals.The champions have also been linked with a move to bolster their midfield.As SunSport told you, the Premier League champions are planning a £50.3 million January swoop for Martin Zubimendi.The release clause in Zubimendi’s contract would not be a problem, although manager Guardiola was initially not keen on making any major moves in the January market.City’s injury pile-up and dismal form could signal a rethink, as Guardiola is equally reluctant to pile too much pressure on his younger players. More

PEP GUARDIOLA is losing sleep trying to handle his first crisis at Manchester City.And the Etihad boss says rivals are “taking the p” out of his faltering Prem champions.Man City boss Pep Guardiola has revealed he is struggling to sleep with his team’s formCredit: GettyGuardiola believes City’s rivals are taking the p*** out of themCity visit runaway leaders Liverpool today on the back of a six-game winless run.Defeat would leave them 11 POINTS adrift of Arne Slot’s side.Guardiola confessed: “I don’t like it. I don’t enjoy it at all.“I don’t sleep as good as when I won every game.Read more football news“Maybe it’s more unusual to win four Premier League titles in a row. In that moment I was stable enough, I was happy because I eat better and sleep better.”Guardiola, 53, confessed scratches on his head and a cut nose were self- inflicted after he watched City blow a 3-0 lead in 14 minutes in Tuesday’s Champions League draw at home to Feyenoord.That followed five defeats in all competitions — the Catalan’s worst run of his managerial career.And he accepts his rivals are LOVING seeing City struggle.Most read in FootballFive Man City disasters that led to Pep Guardiola scratching his OWN face before ‘self-harm’ apologyGuardiola said: “As is normal in sport, they take the p and they laugh at your defeats.“At least there’s respect. There’s no violence and this kind of stuff. It is part of how nice football is that people can laugh at you when it’s not going well.FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS“But this shall pass — I don’t know when but nothing is eternal, not even our lives.“When I face this situation with my heart this is normal but maybe not in these six games.”Guardiola says he is making his players “suffer” to pull City out of their dive — and revealed he wants to build another great squad.One of the reasons he signed a new two-year deal last month was to put that plan into action.Guardiola added: “At the right moment, the club — myself first — will take the decisions we have to take to maintain the club for many years to come.“I want to be here. I asked to be here to try it.” More

WATCHING Pep Guardiola scratching his head live on television on Tuesday night was the ultimate sign of a manager at his wits’ end.Yes, the Spanish sorcerer was only scraping his head and face.Pep Guardiola caused concern when he appeared covered in scratches for his post-match interviewYou didn’t have to be Monty Python’s Black Knight to declare the cut on his nose “only a flesh wound”.But for a Guardiola side to throw away a three goal lead at HOME inside the final few minutes demonstrated the epic scale of City’s decline and fall.Even a few weeks ago, despite the ongoing off field cloud of the “115” alleged financial rules breaches that is being heard in a central London venue, City were not far from their customary relentless selves.Five straight defeats, including three in the Prem, were capped off by that 4-0 home thumping by Spurs on Saturday – a game that was supposed to be a celebration of the manager signing his new two-year deal.READ MORE FOOTBALL NEWSAnd Guardiola’s admissions that his team are “fragile” and “not stable”, joking that he wanted to “hurt himself” and his general bearing demonstrated just how much has gone wrong, so quickly.Sun Sport looks at the key issues that must be addressed.  No Rodri, no Party The ovation the City fans gave the Spain midfielder as he raised his Ballon d’Or trophy before the Tottenham trauma told its own story.The reality is that Rodri’s absence has left a hole that nobody in the City squad can fill on their own. Most read in FootballNot Mateo Kovacic – currently on the missing list – or John Stones, or Rico Lewis. Nobody.Instead of a solid defensive screen, City have begun to represent a farmer’s stile. A bit of legwork and you are over the top. It has been an open invitation for teams that have a desire to hurt City – as Spurs, Bournemouth, Brighton, Sporting and now Feyenoord have shown.Guardiola has never been shy about his desire to reinvent football, time and again.Perhaps, though, he has to ponder adding to the defensive security of his side by a change of shape. If he has not got one player to do the Rodri role, maybe he needs two in there?Ballon d’Or winner Rodri is out for the next eight to nine months after undergoing knee surgery following after rupturing his ACL against ArsenalGuardiola cut a frustrated figure on the touchline after City’s capitulation extended their winless run to an astonishing six gamesBring up the bodiesGuardiola has not hidden how much he has been hurt by the injury crisis that started before the season kicked off.Oscar Bobb had been earmarked for a key role this term but the Norwegian broke his leg in August and will not return until at least February.Then came Rodri’s season-ending cruciate injury against Arsenal.Kevin de Bruyne and Jack Grealish have made just four Prem starts out of 12 games, Stones three, Nathan Ake only one.And with things already teetering, the calf injury that forced Ruben Dias off after 45 minutes of the Carabao Cup defeat at Tottenham feels like the straw that broke the camel’s back.City have conceded 15 goals in the last five games. Dias is the lynchpin of the back line. It’s not rocket science.City miss Kovacic and DiasLegs goneAlan Hansen was famously wrong when he declared “you don’t win anything with kids”.But maybe what we are seeing with Pep’s side is that the Premier League is no country for old men.Six of City’s outfield squad are now 30-somethings – and it is starting to look that way, too.Timo Werner happily accepting the invitation to run legs off Kyle Walker to set up Tottenham’s fourth at the weekend was symbolic of the 34-year-old’s sudden physical limitations. Walker’s pace has always been his super-power. He looks like he has now swallowed Kryptonite.Many City fans celebrated Ilkay Gundogan’s return in the summer after his unhappy year at Barcelona but those cheers have stalled. Gundogan was walking in thick mud as James Maddison gave him the slip at the weekend, while Bernardo Silva has been a pale imitation of his normal self.Guardiola has driven his players relentlessly for eight years. Many of them have been on the journey with him all the way.But it looks as if they have run out of road. Where City used to know they could out-play and out-run sides, that is no longer the case.It did not help that the successive Prem games City lost were against arguably the three of the best footballing sides in the league. All of them are teams that want to have a go.  The fear factor has disappeared and opponents are seeing the vulnerabilities rather than being cowed by the strengths. Spurs’ James Maddison ran the City midfield ragged on SaturdayGuardiola’s current starting XI might have hit the end of the roadGoal glut goneEver since the arrival of Erling Haaland, City have been almost unstoppable.The Norwegian has led the way but he has not been alone.And this season, by contrast, with Haaland having gone off the boil in recent weeks, his team-mates have been unable to fill the void.In their 12 Prem matches so far, City have scored 22 goals – fewer than Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea and the same number as Brentford.By contrast, at the same point last term, they had scored 32 and in 2022-23 it was 33.Haaland’s 12 goal return is only marginally down on the previous campaigns when he had 14 two years ago and 13 last time round.But Phil Foden, whose 14 goals in the second half of last term exceed Haaland’s tally, has yet to find the net in the Prem and defender Josko Gvardiol – whose blunders at the back seem to be on repeat – is second-highest scorer with three.You have to wonder whether Guardiola is now regretting his decision to sanction the departure of Manchester born and bred Cole Palmer and Argentina’s World Cup-winning Julian Alvarez.Palmer has scored 32 in 59 appearances for Chelsea, including seven in 14 games this term, while Alvarez’ free-kick at Sparta Prague was his ninth in 20 for Atletico Madrid.City bagged £124m for the pair. But keeping them would have been priceless.Erling Haaland had gone off the boil in recent Prem weeks before scoring a brace on TuesdayMeanwhile, Cole Palmer has scored 32 in 59 appearances for ChelseaMentality monsteredWhen it mattered, Guardiola’s team ALWAYS knew how to find a way.It looked that way again when Stones headed the injury time winner at Wolves last month.Yet now it all feels very different. A team that is starting to look for self-pity as soon as something goes against them.Those losses at Spurs in the Carabao and then Bournemouth might have been a blip. But three more are a full-scale crisis.The way City turned their toes up in the second half against Sporting was the first real sign of what Guardiola is now admitting is “frailty”.Brighton scored twice in five minutes to sink City at the AmexThen Brighton scored twice in five minutes to turn the game at the Amex on its head, with City suddenly powerless to respond.Against Spurs, the air went out of the City balloon as soon as Maddison scored his first. The mental paralysis was evident.And on Tuesday night, from three up and cruising against Feyenoord, it was a remarkable implosion.Under that sort of pressure, a manager needs his players to stand up and be counted. Too many are folding, seeming to feel themselves incapable of affecting change. And now, looming, is what would be the biggest test of the season yet even in normal circumstances.City have not won in front of a crowd at Anfield since 2003, when Nicolas Anelka stole the points in the last minute.Another defeat would leave them 11 points adrift of Arne Slot’s side. READ MORE SUN STORIESThey know what they face, on and off the pitch. This time it’s the visitors who will have to walk on through the storm, one that is raging around Guardiola and his squad. More