Has Manchester City’s stature finally reached the Champions League level?

Jesus Navas

The Spanish and Seville winger has been on the radar of almost every top club in Europe from the past 8-10 years. He went close to becoming a Chelsea player, but decided to stay at Sevilla. The prime reason for his stay at his home club for so long attributes to his medical condition. Navas suffers from chronic homesickness and seizures and this very condition has been his evil, restricting his adventures to only Spain. This was also the reason for the failed transfer to Chelsea in 2006 after the clubs agreed a fee.

So, what has changed now? Navas has allegedly overcome this syndrome and is now prepared to venture into English shores. With a foray of Spanish players residing in England at the moment, Navas might as well feel at home. Issues aside, what does he bring to the table on a football pitch?

Prolific, sublime quality. If you want to rubber stamp the word “winger” beside a name, you can do that a million times beside Jesus Navas. You won’t get a much more ‘wingy’, ’widey’ winger anywhere in the world. Navas plays predominantly on the right wing and is a very good dribbler. He has a slender figure and possesses electric pace, beating defenders in a flash to produce juicy crosses for the center forwards. He needs to be more stocked up for the English challenge. Though his ball control is not so Spanishy, he has decent control for Premier League standards. The only downside to the transfer is his age. Navas will turn 28 this November and this obviously means his curve goes down from now on, with him having reached his peak.

Man City have had a mixed approach in handling wingers over the past seasons. Some of the notable ones being SWP, Adam Johnson, Craig Bellamy and Vladimir Weiss. Their style of football never depended much on the ability of pure wingplay. Of the above mentioned players, only SWP was an out-and-out winger, all others were used as inverted ones. Navas isn’t an inverted winger, and is most effective when used wide right. How the new manager will infuse him into the squad remains to be seen.