Sport
Should City turn their attention to Lautaro Martinez?
Football is in financial trouble and if we are not careful, the damage could be irreversible. These things are often hard to quantify, can take time to become noticeable and have previously been dismissed. But the events of 2021 have laid things bare, and if you are still unconvinced, all you need to do is look at how quickly things are unravelling at Italian champions Inter and the ongoing situation with their star striker, Lautaro Martinez.
Serie A was lorded over for almost a decade by Juventus. Dethroning them took a gargantuan effort and the sort of money Italian clubs have not been used to spending. Antonio Conte, the man who started Juve’s dynasty, was a huge factor in Inter celebrating a first scudetto since 2010 but it was the signing of Romelu Lukaku for over £74m which made the real difference.
It was a huge outlay and proved worth it but the perilous position Italian clubs were in was accentuated by the pandemic. It is easy to say that every club has struggled over the past 18 months, but, in reality, the majority have, while a small few have grown stronger.
There is a divide happening in football now. Big, historic clubs are being left in the dust of the few richest. Lukaku’s £97.5m move to Chelsea, which was confirmed last week, and Inter’s subsequent chase for 35-year-old Edin Dzeko, believed to cost around €2m, is indicative of that. Speculation was rife that Inter’s situation was so dire that liquidation was a possibility. Thankfully that seems to be unfounded but there is a chance for some clubs to circle and pick off a title-winning squad. Lukaku was just the start.
His strike partner, Argentine Lautaro Martinez, has been linked with both Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal this summer. Playing two up front became worth it for Conte and, although he would most likely be required to perform a different role were he to move to England, he has the skillset to do it. Spurs are reportedly targeting him for £60m, in case they sell Harry Kane to Manchester City for at least double that, whereas Arsenal are seemingly losing patience with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has really struggled to find his best form since signing a new contract at the Emirates Stadium.
But perhaps City should take a look at his situation. As things stand, they are locked in a game of chess with Daniel Levy over Kane but his reputation for hard negotiation is problematic. Despite standing firm on their maximum price, believed to be around £130m, they are £30m away from bringing Spurs to the table and there is no alternative. Their focus is on Kane and nobody else, which means something drastic must change if he is to make the move to the Etihad Stadium before the transfer window closes.
Would an alternative weaken their pursuit of Kane? Arguably but, at the same time, with Lukaku joining Chelsea, Jadon Sancho and Raphael Varane in at Manchester United and Virgil van Dijk back fit at Liverpool, this is expected to be the most competitive title race in years. Pep Guardiola will know the arrival of Kane, added to Jack Grealish’s signing, could establish City’s lead over their rivals to unassailable levels but the risk of not signing an adequate replacement for Sergio Agüero is obvious.
Ferran Torres has shown potential in front of goal, and while Gabriel Jesus has proven capable of performing in a City shirt, there isn’t much evidence to suggest he could full the void left by Agüero.
Kane would solve that conundrum and City are believed to like the fact he can drop deep as well as playing inside the opposing box. But Lautaro Martinez may genuinely represent a good option and is almost certainly an easier deal to do. Rather than comparing him to Kane, which is a battle he would almost certainly lose, it would perhaps be more pertinent to compare him to Agüero when he joined from Atletico Madrid in 2011, because there are a number of similarities.
Technically, they are similar, in terms of close control and finishing ability. Martinez’s numbers aren’t groundbreaking but he proved himself a great dovetail for Lukaku over the past two years, scoring 31 goals in two seasons. Agüero developed into one of the best strikers in the world and the best in City’s history but at 23, the same age as Lautaro Martinez is now, he was part of a double action, scoring 20 goals in 32 matches in his final season at Atleti. The numbers are similar and their styles are similar. Kane offers Guardiola the finished article, ready to go now, but his age dictates he won’t have the longevity Agüero enjoyed.
Lautaro Martinez is a risk and, in some quarters, an unknown quantity. With the value he offers, around half that of Kane, and Guardiola’s ability to coach and mould players, he may just prove worth it if City lose patience waiting for the England captain.
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