{"id":654297,"date":"2025-05-02T08:06:26","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T12:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=654297"},"modified":"2025-05-02T08:06:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T12:06:26","slug":"manchester-city-monitored-joan-garcia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/05\/02\/manchester-city-monitored-joan-garcia\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester City Scouts Have ‘Closely Monitored’ Spanish Goalkeeper Ahead Of Summer Move"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manchester City scouts have “closely monitored” 23-year-old Spanish goalkeeper Joan Garcia ahead of a potential move this summer, as per Rob Dawson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Manchester City Scouts Monitoring Joan Garcia<\/h2>\n

City’s Goalkeeper Situation<\/h3>\n

City have had problems with their goalkeeper in the recent past, particularly when the form of Joe Hart began to dip when Pep Guardiola first arrived in Manchester. However, the signing of Ederson<\/a> from Benfica in 2017 solved all of these issues.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian arguably has the best distribution of any goalkeeper on the planet and his shot-stopping ability is extremely underrated. It proved crucial in the 2023 Champions League final when he made a string of saves in the dying minutes to secure City their first European triumph and a historic treble.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old has made a staggering 365 appearances for the Citizens as he has been their undisputed number one for eight seasons.<\/p>\n

However, some deficiencies have begun to emerge this season. Ederson has made more high-profile mistakes than usual, including a horrible error in a crucial Champions League game against Real Madrid, he has also been in and out of the team due to injuries.<\/p>\n

Dawson reports that, like last summer, City’s number 31 will have plenty of potential suitors in Saudi Arabia in the next transfer window.<\/p>\n

Read More:<\/strong>\u00a0MLS Side ‘Make Approach’ to Sign Manchester City ‘Hero’<\/a><\/p>\n

His deputy, Stefan Ortega Moreno<\/a> has been more than a capable replacement. The German has played 54 games across his three seasons at the club, a remarkably large number for a second-choice goalkeeper, showing how much faith Guardiola has in him.<\/p>\n

In his first season in Manchester, Ortega played every minute in the FA Cup and was a pivotal part of the defensive unit that did not concede a goal from open play in the entire competition.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/strong>Deloitte Football Money League: Real Madrid and Manchester City Top the Standings<\/a><\/p>\n

But, it remains to be seen if the 32-year-old would be trusted as the first-choice goalkeeper if Ederson was to leave and he has previously expressed a desire to play as much first-team football as possible.<\/p>\n

What Replacements Are City Looking At?<\/h3>\n

Garcia<\/a> is someone who City are closely monitoring due to his reported \u20ac25 million release clause, a very modest fee in today’s transfer market. The Spaniard is coming to the end of his first full season as a first-choice goalkeeper in senior football, but he has been one of the outstanding goalkeepers in La Liga.<\/p>\n

After breaking into the RCD Espanyol team in the second half of last term and helping them to promotion, Garcia has played every minute in the league for the Pericos this year.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/strong>UEFA Europa and Conference League Semifinal Predictions Including Manchester United vs Athletic Club Bilbao<\/a><\/p>\n

He has prevented an astonishing 9.0 goals this season, more than twice as many as the next-best goalkeeper, and he has made the most saves per 90 in the Spanish top flight. Garcia also has the second-highest save percentage this season, the same as Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois.<\/p>\n

All of this has helped Espanyol to have the third-highest xGa over performance in La Liga.<\/p>\n

Garcia also has excellent numbers for sweeping, claiming crosses and accurate long balls, making him the perfect successor to Ederson.<\/p>\n

Read More:<\/strong>\u00a0Manchester United to Rival La Liga Giants for Experienced Bundesliga Defender<\/a><\/p>\n

Dawson also believes that Portuguese number one Diogo Costa<\/a> is another option for City. The 25-year-old is undoubtedly more established than Garcia as he has played the best part of 200 games for FC Porto, who are Champions League regulars, and he has 34 caps for Portugal.<\/p>\n

He performs excellently in terms of clean sheets, sweeping and both short and long passing. Costa would certainly not be a bad addition for City, but signing the Portuguese would likely be much more expensive than signing Garcia.<\/p>\n

Garcia may also be more willing to get phased into first-team action in his first year in Manchester, giving Ortega an opportunity to play a considerable number of games in the final year of his contract before leaving on a free transfer at the end of his contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manchester City scouts have “closely monitored” 23-year-old Spanish goalkeeper Joan Garcia ahead of a potential move this summer, as per Rob Dawson. Manchester City Scouts Monitoring Joan Garcia City’s Goalkeeper Situation City have had problems with their goalkeeper in the recent past, particularly when the form of Joe Hart began to dip when Pep Guardiola […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5507,"featured_media":650614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,6,3,7188],"tags":[9670],"class_list":["post-654297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-la-liga","category-premier-league","category-rumours","tag-manchester-city-predicted-lineup"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5507"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654297"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654310,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654297\/revisions\/654310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}