Antoine Semenyo has elected to join Manchester City, turning down approaches from Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, a decision attributed to his wish to work under Pep Guardiola. Ironically, Arsenal were thought to be his preferred destination because of his childhood support, per The Athletic, but City emerged victorious in the race.<\/p>\n
Reports note that there have been ‘zero doubts’ about the move since Christmas Eve. Guardiola’s reputation and record are presented as central to Semenyo’s choice. Across 15 full seasons in senior management, Guardiola has won the top flight 12 times. Manchester City’s 2024\u201325 campaign was widely derided as the worst of his career yet he still inspired a top-three finish and a run to the FA Cup final.<\/p>\n
Questions remain over where Semenyo will fit into City’s forward group. The club’s most obvious first-choice frontline centres on Erling Haaland, most commonly flanked by Phil Foden and Rayan Cherki. J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku is another potent option on the wing. Semenyo will also be competing with Savinho and Omar Marmoush, the latter returning from the Africa Cup of Nations.<\/p>\n
City’s squad issues have been more clearly identified at centre back, prompting reported interest in Marc Gu\u00e9hi. Guardiola’s long-term position is also subject to speculation. His contract runs until the summer of 2027, yet there have been reports that City have prepared for his departure in six months, with multiple discussions held between the club and Enzo Maresca before he left Chelsea.<\/p>\n
The structure of Semenyo’s release clause has influenced the timing of any move. Bournemouth set a \u00a365 million trigger that had to be activated within the first 10 days of January, a mechanism that allowed the club time to seek replacements. Their first-choice target, Brennan Johnson, has already joined Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n
Andoni Iraola has been clear about Semenyo’s availability during a busy spell of fixtures. \u201cAntoine will play tomorrow, yes,\u201d he declared. \u201cI can give you my opinion, from my experience, but there is nothing signed with Antoine Semenyo.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you ask me personally, \u2018what do you think?\u2019 With all the noise, I think it could be the last game, but I cannot guarantee it. I understand the market, I understand the noise but right now there is nothing agreed, nothing signed, so for me he is our player and I hope he continues.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut my understanding also, because I have been in the [transfer] market before with this club and others, there is a chance it is his last game also, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Semenyo chose Manchester City to work under Pep Guardiola, rejecting United, Liverpool, Chelsea. Jan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[739,1056,1163],"tags":[1211,983,801],"class_list":["post-5813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bournemouth","category-man-city","category-transfers","tag-africa-cup-of-nations","tag-agents","tag-antoine-semenyo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}