Is It A Huge Setback For Manchester City To Lose Out On The 22-Year-Old World Class Signing To Liverpool? | OneFootball

Florian Wirtz‘s £116 million transfer to Liverpool has not gone unnoticed. The figure, as impressive as the young German’s talent, reflects ambition, planning and, above all, speed of execution. Manchester City, who usually move astutely in the market, decided to watch from afar this time. The question is inevitable: Did Pep Guardiola make a mistake by not insisting on one of the brightest talents in European football?

A Silent Blow for Manchester City? Wirtz’s Transfer to Liverpool Questions Guardiola’s Strategy

Wirtz is not just any attacking midfielder. He is young, lucid, and in the last two years has carried the creative weight of Bayer Leverkusen without hesitation. The German’s ability to find space, combine with the wingers and create danger from the second line make him a unique player.

In a situation where Kevin De Bruyne has moved on from the club and Bernardo Silva is looking with interest at offers from outside, letting a player like this slip away feels, at the very least, risky.

It is not a question of money, as City have the resources. They have proven this in other transfer windows. Here, the problem seems to have been one of interpretation. While Liverpool acted with determination, Manchester hesitated.

Perhaps they thought they could wait another year, or that the inflated price did not justify immediate action. But the market does not forgive passivity, especially when it comes to talents who fit perfectly into a possession-based, attacking style of play like the one Guardiola employs.

Can City find another Wirtz? Perhaps. There are interesting names on the radar. However, replacing quality with promise often comes at a temporary cost, and time is precisely what a team that fights for every title year after year does not have to spare. This signing not only strengthens Liverpool, but it also sends a message: there are other projects that are moving forward with conviction.

The loss of Wirtz could force Guardiola to rethink his approach. Because while his team are still feared, his rivals are no longer content to watch from below. They are reacting, and now they are doing so with players who once seemed destined to wear sky blue.