Is Ayyoub Bouaddi actually ready for Man City?

Following his impressive World Cup showing for Morocco, Ayyoub Bouaddi has been the subject of extensive transfer speculation. Most of the rich teams interested in him are happy to leave him at Lille on loan for one more season, but David Ornstein is reporting that Manchester City are interested in signing Bouaddi to integrate him into their first team immediately. He’ll probably cost £85m.

To the eyes of just about anyone who has a baseline understanding of football, Bouaddi looks like an exceptional young player. For an 18-year-old, he looks exceptionally composed and physically robust. But this is a position where players often do not develop all the requisite skills to excel at a high level until well into their 20s, and I do not think that Bouaddi is currently an exception.

I suspect that, within 5 years, Bouaddi will become one of the world’s top all-around central midfielders. But I don’t think his World Cup performances suggested that he’s ready for the step up to Manchester City immediately, and his data from Lille this past season suggests the same. City fans should not expect him to make a positive impact for the first team next year.

This is not to say that this would be a bad purchase. There’s a school of thought that the best thing for Bouaddi’s development is to get him into an elite training environment with top players, and that his passing vision and ability to process information quickly will grow more from this than it would from another season in Ligue 1.

Personally, I disagree with that idea. I do not think that riding the bench and/or getting his ass kicked at City is the best thing for Bouaddi’s development right now. Playing a lot of football at an appropriate level is almost always better.

I haven’t heard anything about the potential of a Bouaddi buyer loaning him to a Champions League team on the continent, but I do think that a year at a Dortmund or Villarreal-like substance is the appropriate stepping stone for him. This is what I’d be trying to sell to him if I was City, or Arsenal, or any other interested party.

Bouaddi is a good player, and he’s probably going to be an elite player in a couple years, but I do not think he’s ready for the absolute top level of club football.

More transfer rumours

• Manchester United have activated a £35m release clause in Youri Tielemans’ contract and are close to signing him from Aston Villa. That’s a big loss for Villa, but pretty sensible business from everyone. Villa probably had to give him that clause to get him to sign, they got 3 great years out of him, and now they’re getting a decent fee for a 29-year-old they signed on a free. United get someone who helps them win now, even if the upside is low, and don’t pay too much for it.

• With that money, Villa are on track to GAZUMP Newcastle for Johan Manzambi. Whoever ends up signing him, I think they’re getting an absolute gem.

• Since Man United aren’t signing Ederson, and Newcastle aren’t signing Manzambi… maybe Newcastle can sign Ederson? Sure!

• Chelsea are now being linked to Adam Wharton, though I suspect they’ll need to get another big fee for one of their existing central midfielders for that to be a possibility. I continue to be extremely Whartonpilled and shocked that he was not selected for the England squad. I think Tottenham should have made him their top target ahead of Fernandes and Tonali. This guy rocks.

• Bournemouth have announced the signing of striker Alvaro Rodriguez for £20m, and we wrote about him previously. Check out Mohamed’s profile of this unique playmaking target man.

• Leandro Trossard to Benfica is also official, so I think we can expect Arsenal to pursue a wide forward as has been widely rumoured. At equal prices, I’d much rather have Bradley Barcola than Morgan Rogers.

• Víctor Valdepeñas from Real Madrid B to Fiorentina is a bit of an under-the-radar transfer, but I think you’ll be seeing this name again in a couple years. He’s a physically talented lefty with good ball-carrying numbers, and Real Madrid have a 50% sell-on. They’re going to make some money when he gets flipped to the Prem.

• Americans/America haters, here’s a fun one. Folarin Balogun is of interest to Juventus. Get your corruption jokes in.

• For anyone who thinks they can fix Huge Jerk Syndrome, Alejandro Garnacho is reportedly available for the same £40m that Chelsea paid for him. While I regularly tell my friends that they cannot fix their stupid idiot boyfriends, I do think that footballers are capable of growing up and changing. And this guy is a good player! I still believe!

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