Manchester City are willing to part with bench talent Fabian Delph if they get fetch the right price this summer, sources have revealed to ESPN FC.
City would apparently expect to receive around £15million for the former Leeds United man and Aston Villa captain and won’t stand in his way if he decides to leave, which comes as no real surprise really given his peripheral role in the squad.
Delph, 29, who joined under controversial circumstances after backtracking on a promise to stay with Villa (the Guardian reported in depth at the time), is out of contract next season and has fallen behind even Oleksandr Zinchenko in the pecking order.
Pep Guardiola placed a lot of faith in the England star when he converted him to left back during the 17/18 campaign following an injury to first-choice Benjamin Mendy and he played a fundamental part in City’s magnificent 100-point title-winning season.
Though, with Mendy recently returning to first-team action, and Zinchenko moving up the ranks, there is seemingly no place left for Delph who played just 20 times this term with his last appearance coming in the Champions League defeat to Tottenham at the beginning of April.
“It’s frustrating for anybody who doesn’t get as much game time as they want,” Delph revealed. “I’m quite experienced now and very level-headed so my main focus was to help my teammates.
“I always talk about being a team player. I think I’m a really good team player. I had the lads’ back all the way through. I was pushing them in training. I was there, a big voice in the changing room before games.”
To be fair to Delph, he’s not wrong.
The Englishman is still a very decent player, and he experience at the top level of English football will almost certainly come in use to any of the punters willing to part with the fairly nominal £15million that’s said to be being asked for him.
Remember: this man has played under Pep Guardiola for three years now, there’s very few who can claim that.
We imagine any mid-table side looking to establish themselves a foothold in the league, or even take the next step, will benefit massively from his extensive experience in the game, passing ability – which ranks at 90% accuracy on average – and fairly newfound defensive qualities, considering his stint in the full-back role for much of the past two seasons.
After all, the likes of West Ham United (as per Football Insider on May 27th) were linked, so it’s not hard to gauge at what sort of level he might be performing at.
Manchester City fans, would you be happy to wave goodbye to Delph? Do you think he could make something of himself elsewhere? Let us know in the comments below…