Manuel Akanji admits he was a Manchester United fan growing up
According to the Sun, new Manchester City signing Manuel Akanji has admitted in the past that he was a boyhood fan of their rivals, Manchester United, growing up.
During his stint with his previous club, Borussia Dortmund, the player was asked about his dream transfer to which he replied to the same.
“Since my childhood days Manchester United have been my favourite club. I’d like to play there one day.”
It was claimed last season during the short Ralf Rangnick era that the Swiss defender was on their wishlist and was interested in making a move for the defender.
However, things did not materialise in the manner expected with Rangnick cutting short his dreadful tenure at United and becoming Austria’s national team coach.
Erik Ten Hag was given the charge and the Dutch manager came with his own preferred targets. United went ahead with a deal for Argentine Lisandro Martinez, who played under Ten Hag at Ajax Amsterdam thus ending any hope of Akanji moving to the Theatre of Dreams.
In an interesting turn of events which came to everyone’s surprise, Manchester City went ahead and sealed a £15m deal with Borussia Dortmund, who had fallen out of favour at the German club with the new arrival in Nicolas Sule.
On the outskirts, the deal does not make much sense for the player other than the fact that City would be major favourites in all competitions that they are a part of and he would have a chance of winning major trophies.
However, with Ruben Dias, John Stones, Nathan Ake and the returning Adyemic Laporte all ahead of the pecking order, it would be wise to say that it would be a tough task for Akanji to get regular playing time ahead of a crucial World Cup year.,
Manchester United in the summer transfer window was really concentrating on removing the deadwood in the squad and making space for new arrivals.
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It is not practically possible to replace the entire squad in one transfer window and United as such has never been a good selling club so patience is required.
With his contract coming to an end, there could have been a possibility that United made a move for the defender and the player would have had a better chance of securing minutes at Old Trafford than at Etihad.
However, with the transfer done, it is highly debatable whether the player would ever be able to fulfil his wish of representing his boyhood club with United unlikely to make a move for a rival player.
