EPL: Man City forced to sign Akanji – Guardiola

Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola, has claimed they were forced into the transfer market to sign Manuel Akanji because of Aymeric Laporte’s fitness.

City completed the €17.5million transfer of Akanji from Borussia Dortmund on deadline day.

And Guardiola has now said the decision was partly down to Laporte’s unavailability, who has not featured at all this season after undergoing knee surgery in the summer.

“We have four incredible centre-backs, but sometimes we’ve had it tough with injuries.

“Some are getting better but a month or month and a half [for Laporte] and Nathan [Ake] could not play [the last two games].

“We had an opportunity to bring him [Akanji], one year left in Dortmund, a lot of experience, he’s perfect for what we need and we’re very pleased to have him here as competition,” Guardiola told a news conference on Friday.