Dias On His Way In, Otamendi On His Way Out

This is a guest post from Steve.

Another transfer window, another piece of transfer activity for City at centre-back. This time, it appears increasingly likely that Nicolas Otamendi is on his way out, heading to Benfica as part of the deal to bring Ruben Dias to Manchester.

It will bring to an end a five-year spell at the Blues for Otamendi, who arrived with a reputation for aggressive defending and certainly lived up to that billing. Strong in the air and quick to a tackle, Otamendi had many positive attributes and gave good service to City – but was culpable of diving in too often and going to ground, and lacking the pace needed to recover from those positions.

He was much maligned over the last year or so, with notable TV pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher highlighting his flaws, but Otamendi performed an admirable job for City over the years – forming a core part of Pep Guardiola’s defence in his time at the club and displaying a calm head in possession.

But whilst he is on the way out of Manchester – with the best payout casinos worth checking out – Ruben Dias, the Benfica centre-back, has  been identified as the man to fill his boots. City’s defensive search has been long-winding over the summer, with rumoured approaches for Kalidou Koulibaly and Jules Kounde, but for whatever reason the heirarchy at the club has settled on Dias.

Guardiola will hope that he forms a quick understanding with Aymeric Laporte at the heart of the Blues’ back four, with John Stones and Nathan Ake the back-up options. Eric Garcia is another player who looks to be heading close to the exit, as he nears a move to Barcelona, so that would leave Fernandinho as an experienced option to fill in, with Taylor Harwood-Bellis a younger face to take part.

NZ Casinos offer up lots of fun for customers, and Dias will be hoping he has fun in Manchester. He’ll have to adapt to Guardiola’s style of football, but looks well set to embrace the physicality of the Premier League and make his mark on the team.