You are here

CLICHY AN ASSET TO MAN CITY

Manchester City rarely get credit for being frugal. It's partly because they've regularly spent hundreds of millions of pounds on their summer transfers and haven't been scouting around to pick up a player on the cheap.

Their transfer policy for some time now, have been to sign already made players for exorbitant prices instead of scouting around to buy younger and cheaper players.

However, it can't be ignored that City generally don't do that well when taking a low-risk punt on a signing who may turn out to be a great addition but who won't ruin the club financially if it doesn't work out.

Scott Sinclair, an £8m acquisition from Swansea in 2012, and Jack Rodwell, a £12m purchase from Everton that same summer, are often held up as examples of why promising players shouldn't move to the Etihad.

Caballero's penalty heroics in the League Cup final win over Liverpool in 2016 make him a cult hero -- and not much more. He'd have faded to the background had Claudio Bravo not been an expensive flop last season.

There has been an argument to say that City haven't had a good return on one of their attempted shrewd moves since they snapped up Gael Clichy from Arsenal for £7m in July 2011.

He may have finished his City career floundering around the left-back position as a shadow of the defender he once was, but it's worth remembering that he slotted in seamlessly to Mancini's back line and helped shore up a weakness in what would be the club's first title-winning campaign in 44 years.

Before Clichy's arrival, Mancini had problems with that side of his defense, with Wayne Bridge and Aleksander Kolarov finding it difficult to adapt to life at City.

Clichy came on board soon after and slotted in so easily into the Manchester City backline, solving City’s problems at left-back. The French star currently plies his trade in the Turkish Super Lig with Istanbul Basaksehir.