Manchester City can win transfer race for £60m winger race - and get one over on Liverpool

Neither Liverpool nor Manchester City managed to land a decisive blow in this year’s title race this weekend, but it seems like that won’t be the last time that two of England’s best sides face off over the coming months – according to a new report from The Daily Telegraph, the two teams will also be battling to sign Pedro Neto from Wolverhampton Wanderers this summer.

They aren’t the only sides interested in the Portuguese winger but are apparently the two furthest forward in the queue. Wolves, meanwhile, stand to cash in to the tune of £60m, for a player they spent around £15m on in 2019. Given their difficult financial position with relation to the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR), one would imagine that they will be pretty happy to move him on for that sort of sum.

There’s a valid question over which side needs a player like Neto more, and which side he would have the biggest impact with – and it’s likely that the answer depends on the future of Mohamed Salah.

If Salah is lured away by the largesse of the Saudi Pro League, then Liverpool will be left with a gaping hole on their right flank which Neto may well be a good choice to fill. Like the Egyptian he’s fast, quick off the mark and has the kind of close control which allows him to take defends on and beat them.

That kind of line-breaking quality will be desperately needed at Anfield when Salah does leave, whether that’s this summer or in the future, but one thing Neto is unlikely to replace is Salah’s goal output. The Portuguese’s recent goal against Manchester United was his eleventh in the Premier League in five seasons, a scoring rate of about one in ten which has declined after a fast start. It was just his third strike in three years – in other words, while Neto offers a good facsimile of Salah’s build-up play, he doesn’t offer anything like the same threat in and around the box.

Manchester City, on the other hand, wouldn’t need to the goals quite so much – they’re rather more comfortable leaving the goalscoring to Erling Haaland and simply having their attacking midfielders chip in here and there.

For them, he would be useful depth in the wide areas, which are beginning to seem a little thin once you look past Phil Foden. Jack Grealish is struggling and Jérémy Doku has slowed down after a fast start to his City career. There are also reports that Bernardo Silva could leave at the end of the season, so Neto would be coming in to keep the squad quality and numbers high enough.

So, Liverpool have a scenario in which they will need a winger rather more than City do, but Neto may not be the kind of direct like-for-like replacement they would ideally want, and they would have to reimagine the way their attack functions if Neto was starting wide right instead of Salah. City, meanwhile, would likely just carry on as normal and find an alternative if he moved to a different club.

One club landing Neto over the other would hardly constitute a knock-out blow ahead of a potential title race re-run, but there are always psychological benefits to signing a player that was coveted by your direct rivals – just look at the crowing of Chelsea fans after they pipped Liverpool to the signature of both Moisés Caicedo and Roméo Lavia. Not lasting victories, given how the season has unfolded, but still a boost at the time.

There is however, one distinct problem that might dissuade either club from prioritising Neto’s signing over alternatives – his injury history. The two months he’s missed this season with a hamstring problem are just the start of a long list of fitness concerns he’s had since missing most of 2021 with a cruciate ligament rupture, a problem which was followed last season by an ankle injury with sidelined him for four months.

It’s also unlikely to have escaped any watching teams’ notice that since his recent return from that hamstring issue, he’s limped off by half-time twice in consecutive matches. Neto’s health is a genuine worry going forward and even clubs with the resources of Liverpool and City can ill afford to waste £60m in the new world of PSR.

Still, someone will take a chance, and Neto has enough quality on the ball to be worth a gamble. Looking at the specific needs of the two teams, one would think that he was a safer bet for City, who have a habit of getting the best out of pacey, direct wingers under Pep Guardiola – just look at the work they did with Riyad Mahrez, for instance. For Liverpool, he would be a fine player but wouldn’t necessarily give them the kind of firepower they could find themselves desperately short of.

Neto’s future will be interesting to watch, but it looks highly unlikely to involve Wolves for much longer – let’s just hope that wherever he ends up, he stays healthy.