Man City blundered by not signing Ballon d’Or star for problem position Pep Guardiola has yet to fix

To say that Manchester City have had a mixed start to the season is something of an understatement given their current Premier League position of ninth after five games.

One of the biggest issues so far has been the inconsistency in defence with Pep Guardiola tinkering on a weekly basis to try and find the best balance at the back. Where the City boss has yet to settle on is in the full-back areas with a mixture of specialist full-backs and centre-halves being played out of position being tried to varying degrees of success.

Man City target lands top ten Ballon d’Or finish

In January, City paid more than £30m for Abdukodir Khusanov from Lens with the 21-year old Uzbekistanian immediately being thrown in at the deep end where he struggled to keep his head above the water.

This season, he has looked gradually more assured and was outstanding against Napoli in the Champions League and then Arsenal, only for his third injury of the season to end his game. As a centre-half by trade, his body is still adapting to the extra demands and mileage needed to play on the flank.

The truth is, City haven’t replaced Kyle Walker, however, in the summer of 2023 they had the perfect opportunity to land a tailor-made long-term option in Achraf Hakimi who emerged as a possible target for the Etihad recruitment team again this summer.

Denzel Dumfries has been mentioned, but Hakimi’s sixth place finish in the Ballon d’Or awards is a perfect illustration of his position as one of the best, if not the best, full-back in the world and he could so easily have been playing in the Premier League.

What Hakimi’s agent said when City were interested

After cleaning up with Paris Saint Germain last season, Hakimi has cemented his place as one of the continent’s best with the Ligue 1 outfit unlikely to want to lose a player who has become so important to Luis Enrique.

Before the Spaniard’s appointment though, there was uncertainty about where the 86-times capped Moroccan would be playing his football.

“Achraf wants to be happy in a sports project with a future, he is 24 years old and went to PSG with great enthusiasm, there were other teams behind him and we bet on PSG,” his agent told Spanish newspaper AS.

“He has three years on his contract and we want him to be calm. What can happen? I don’t know, at some point we will have to sit down with PSG and rethink the situation, but we are seeing what the club does… which at the moment has no coach.

“When PSG has a coach and communicates what the project is, we will see. It’s one of the best clubs in the world. We’ll wait for that to stabilise and see.”

Hakimi was clearly happy with the project at PSG because his contract now runs until 2029 which would mean a sizeable transfer fee to persuade them to part ways with a key player.

If Guardiola and City still have aspirations of returning to dominance in England and reaching the top of European football again though, they need players who are winners and who are the best at what they do. It isn’t too late, however, if they want Hakimi now, he will be considerably more expensive than he was in 2023.