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‘There is so much riding on this – this is the guy to replace Vincent Kompany’: Pep Guardiola’s Man City future rests on success of £65m Ruben Dias, claims Jamie Carragher – who says the manager has ‘a blind spot’ with buying defenders
- Manchester City’s defence was poor in their 5-2 loss to Leicester City on Sunday
- Pep Guardiola is set to respond by bringing in Benfica’s Ruben Dias for £65m
- Jamie Carragher thinks Guardiola could leave City if Dias fails to fix the defence
- The Sky Sports pundit also took a swipe at Guardiola’s ability to scout defenders
Jamie Carragher claims Ruben Dias must be a success at Manchester City or manager Pep Guardiola could leave the club at the end of the season.
City are about the announce a deal for the Benfica centre-back on a £65million deal following their embarrassing defensive performance in the 5-2 defeat by Leicester City on Sunday.
And Sky Sports pundit Carragher believes Dias must fix Guardiola’s leaky defence or City will not win the title, meaning the Spanish coach could abandon his project at the Etihad Stadium.
Jamie Carragher says Ruben Dias (left) must thrive at Man City or Pep Guardiola (right) will go
Carragher (above) believes City need to win the league this season or Guardiola will walk away
Speaking on Monday Night Football, the former Liverpool man said: ‘If this signing doesn’t work and he’s not a huge success, I don’t think City can win the league (and) I don’t see Guardiola staying at the club next season – certainly if they don’t win the league.
‘Maybe if they win the league he will sign a new contract and that is the big fear for me for Manchester City and this Pep project.
‘There is so much riding on this. This is the guy to replace Kompany, if you like. £60million, a huge figure, but if this doesn’t work it’s possibly the end of the Pep project.’
Manchester City and their leaky defence were poor in their 5-2 loss by Leicester on Sunday
Carragher also took a swipe at Guardiola’s activity in the transfer market with regards to defenders over his career.
Since arriving at Manchester City in 2016, the Spaniard has brought £450million-worth of defensive players to the blue half of Manchester, including centre-backs Aymeric Laporte, John Stones and new man Nathan Ake.
Carragher also claimed that the signings of Martin Caceres and Dmytro Chygrynskiy at Barcelona, along with the purchase of Mehdi Benatia at Bayern Munich, gives the impression that Guardiola is not good at spotting top centre-halves.
Carragher also attacked Guardiola’s (above) history in signing defenders over his career
The ex-Liverpool man also claimed Dias must be the ‘new Vincent Kompany’ (above) at City
The Sky pundit continued: ‘This (the Dias deal) is the transfer, for me, has to work for Man City and the worry is that if you look back at the centre-backs that Pep’s bought, even going back to his Barcelona days, it’s not great.
‘The big worry for me will be, has Pep got a huge blindspot with centre-backs or does he ask to much of you as a centre-back playing under Pep Guardiola?
‘I look at Dias coming in and I really think there is a lot at stake for Man City with this signing.’
Benfica have already confirmed Dias’ departure to Manchester City in a statement on Monday
Dias played 33 times for Benfica last season as they finished as runners-up in Portugal’s top-flight. The 23-year-old has also been capped 19 times by Portugal since his international debut in 2018.
Manchester City have until October 5 to finalise all their transfer activity before the summer window shuts.
Guardiola’s side travel to Burnley in the EFL Cup on Wednesday before facing Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United on Saturday just before the deadline closes.
