Stan Collymore has questioned Manchester City’s decision to spend £100 million on Jack Grealish when the club needed a striker.
Manchester City smashed the British transfer record with the purchase of Jack Grealish from Aston Villa for £100 million. While the England international has taken to life at the Etihad positively, Pep Guardiola’s side lack an out-and-out goalscorer after the departure of Sergio Aguero.
Guardiola has trained his side to adapt without a player in the no.9 position, effectively winning the league last season despite the absence of Aguero for the most part. They did try very to sign Harry Kane to fill the void but failed in their pursuit of the England captain. Gabriel Jesus is, thus, the only striker in the team, with Guardiola preferring him on the right side of the Manchester City attack.
Stan Collymore argues with the idea of not signing a striker when it is the position that most needs filling. He questioned Manchester City’s decision to spend £100 million on Grealish when the side lacks goals from the central role. He also pinpointed what Liverpool did when they had a windfall of that kind of cash in the past.
Liverpool chose to spend only on acquiring a defender this summer when people called out the club to sign another attacker and midfielder. However, since the season has begun, the Reds are the only team who remain unbeaten and sit just a point below Chelsea on the table.
?️"Why on earth did they spend £100m on Jack Grealish?"@StanCollymore baffled by Manchester City's failure to acquire an out-and-out striker in the summer ⚽️ #LFC pic.twitter.com/TJ4xyDi7PX
— Empire of the Kop (@empireofthekop) October 3, 2021
Collymore pointed out when Klopp and FSG received a great windfall after Philippe Coutinho’s sale to Barcelona and how they invested the money rather wisely on Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker in subsequent windows. This argument led Collymore to comment on the signing of Grealish, as Empire of the Kop posted his questioning comment.
Collymore said, “Why on earth did they spend £100 million on Grealish?”
Manchester City certainly need a striker, and as Gary Neville pointed out recently, they would have wrapped up the league well ahead of May if they had managed to sign one in the summer.
However, as things stand, Manchester City are one of the favourites for the Premier League title this season after an impressive start, even without a frontman. They recently played out an excellent game at Anfield against Liverpool, which ended in a 2-2 draw, showing no signs of missing an out-and-out no.9 in their team.
