Manchester City have reached an agreement with Leicester City for the transfer of Jeremy Monga, beating rivals Arsenal to sign the teenager.
According to David Ornstein, the deal will cost Man City an initial £10m, potentially rising to £12.5m, but another journalist described it as an “exorbitant price”.
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See Eduard Hahn’s response to Ornstein’s post about X below. Monga certainly looks quite expensive for a 16-year-old with little experience and almost all of his playing time coming in the Championship…
Time will tell if Monga turns out to be a better talent than players like Arsenal’s Max Doman and Liverpool’s Rio Ngmoja, but he is already being paid far more than those two combined.
Arsenal miss out on Jeremy Monga transfer
Arsenal were clearly in strong competition for Monga this summer, but in the end it’s no great surprise that City were more willing and able to pay the high fee required.
Still, one prominent Gunners insider has criticized the club for their handling of the Monga incident, with the young Englishman apparently keen on a move to the Emirates Stadium.
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Perhaps in a few years it will become clear that Arsenal should have simply paid more to sign an extraordinary talent, but it’s probably easy to understand why they weren’t willing to take that risk now.
Monga may have great potential, but after seeing so many wonderkids fail over the past few years, perhaps the AFC would be better off focusing on players who can join this summer and make an immediate impact.
But City will be delighted to have acquired one of the country’s most highly-rated young players for what may ultimately look like a bargain and is not a huge outlay for them anyway.
