Man City ace who Guardiola praised for “how good he’s been” targeted by Spanish giants



Pep Guardiola will likely still be recovering from what was a thrill-a-minute top-of-the-table clash between Man City and Arsenal at the weekend.

What has become a Premier League classic match-up certainly lived up to it’s top billing and was a game that had everything.

From first until last you couldn’t take your eyes off the game, with John Stones providing the coup-de-grace at the death.

Barcelona targeting Guardiola favourite

It was a game of course that saw Rodri injure his knee, which is expected to keep him out for the rest of the season.

How badly that will affect City’s defence of their Premier League title will only be seen over the course of the upcoming games.

It isn’t just the absence of his most important and influential player that Guardiola needs to worry about, however.

His old club, Barcelona, also saw one of their players sustain a serious knee injury at the weekend, and Marc-Andre ter Stegen is similarly likely to be ruled out for the remainder of the 2024/25 campaign.

Barcelona want Stefan Ortega, a player praised by Pep Guardiola (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

As Fichajes detail, that has seen Hansi Flick already demand a number of changes in the goalkeeping area, with a handful of names already identified to come in and beef up Flick’s options between the posts.

One of those named is City’s reserve custodian, Stefan Ortega.

Although he is ostensibly the club’s second choice, he’s shown beyond doubt that he’s a more than able stand-in for Ederson.


 

Indeed, according to the official Man City website, Guardiola praised Ortega for “how good he’s been.”

The notion that he could be a number one elsewhere, particularly at a club as big as Barcelona, could be too tempting for Ortega to turn down, and that’s likely to present Guardiola with a real conundrum, particularly if Ederson gets injured again.

Top photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images