Manchester City are surprisingly now interested in signing Brazilian and Barcelona star Raphinha as a replacement for Riyad Mahrez who will move to Saudi Arabia soon. Raphinha's career in Barcelona is not so bad, but not the best we expect a player of his quality to deliver. If he moves to Manchester City either on a full contract or on loan, Pep will make a monster out of him.
Raphinha might be a good player option to replace Riyad Mahrez. Pep has a good assessment of Raphinha, who won the main place in Xavi's squad the previous season. he helped Barca a lot last season.
Chelsea also reportedly want Raphinha, but a month ago it seemed that Raphinha still wanted to stay in Barcelona. but all possibilities can happen if there is an attractive offer to Barcelona. especially if Xavi wants a player who can be exchanged with Raphinha.
Riyad Mahrez out, Raphinha in?
Pep really admires Raphinha and sees him a top priority to replace Riyad Mahrez. However, I do believe there are better options available. While Raphinha could perform well, he's not an exact like-for-like replacement for Mahrez. And the outcome will depend on whether Manchester City is willing to meet Barcelona's asking fees for Raphinha.
Whatever it is, I think Barcelona is going to ask for a good amount of money from Manchester City for Raphinha. I still do not have any idea about how much money Barcelona is actually going to ask from Manchester City. But I believe Manchester City might actually find other players for that amount of money. Of course, I am just assuming. But the asking price is certainly going to be a big one. I also don’t think it is going to be the best replacement as you said. But I think if they can actually get him for a decent amount of money, he will actually be a good investment for Manchester City.