Croatian national team's midfielder Mateo Kovacic. (Photo by DENIS LOVROVIC/AFP via Getty Images)
According to Daily Mail, Mateo Kovacic has officially joined Manchester City from Chelsea for a £25 million fee and signed a four-year deal. The 29-year-old’s four-year deal will keep him at City until 2027, as he becomes their first signing of the summer window.
City took only one month to wrap up the signing, as they started the negotiations on June 1 during the Croatian’s international duty. As per the report, the former Real Madrid midfielder signed as a replacement for Ilkay Gundogan, who joined Barcelona for free.
The 29-year-old is the fourth player to exit Stamford Bridge after Ruben Loctus-Cheek, Kalidou Koulibaly, and N’Golo Kante, while Kai Havertz is also on the verge of joining Arsenal.
Kovacic joined Chelsea on loan from Real Madrid before the Blues bought the midfielder permanently during their transfer ban under Frank Lampard. His performances saw him become a regular starter immediately and played a key role under Thomas Tuchel to lead the Blues to their second Champions League trophy in 2020–21.
The midfielder went on to make 221 appearances, scoring six goals, and registering 21 assists during his time at Chelsea. Chelsea should be aiming to find his replacement for next season, because he is undoubtedly one of our finest players (not just midfielder) in the past decade.
Kovacic was one of Chelsea’s most technically talented and adaptable midfielders and finding his replacement will be difficult. But that should give us further impetus to go out and spend well on a world-class midfielder and not a youth talent, because we have enough of those already.
It will hurt to see him thrive more at Manchester City, but it is what it is, and we also have our priorities and should move on and focus now on adding new players. Midfielders and a new no. 9 should be our priorities.
A new centre-back won’t hurt either. It seems the Blues are moving at a good pace to lighten their squad. Once the transfer window opens, we can use these funds and the space on the wage books to make more additions.
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