{"id":24500,"date":"2025-08-26T14:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T14:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/24500\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T14:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T14:48:07","slug":"15m-deal-may-just-hand-liverpool-the-premier-league-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/24500\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a315m deal may just hand Liverpool the Premier League title"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Manchester City have shown their best and worst so far in their latest Premier League title challenge with a win and defeat in their opening two games.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Looking to reclaim their title from defending champions <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/topic\/liverpool\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Liverpool<\/a>, Pep Guardiola\u2019s side are in the middle of a much-needed rebuild at the Etihad Stadium. With a week remaining in the transfer window, <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/topic\/pep-guardiola\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Guardiola<\/a> is still looking to offload players from his bloated <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/topic\/manchester-city\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">City<\/a> squad.<\/p>\n<p>Against Tottenham this weekend, <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/topic\/manuel-akanji\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manuel Akanji<\/a> and Ilkay Gundogan were both left out of the squad for rotation purposes. <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/what-manchester-city-have-decided-to-do-with-ederson-and-ilkay-gundogan-as-galatasaray-plot-double-swoop\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The pair have been linked with transfers to Galatasaray<\/a>, as has goalkeeper Ederson.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2066517493-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"FBL-ENG-PR-LIVERPOOL-MAN CITY\" class=\"wp-image-780952\" \/>Photo by PAUL ELLIS\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>And now it seems Akanji is attracting interest from the Premier League, with <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/topic\/crystal-palace\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crystal Palace<\/a> said to have approached City for the Switzerland international.<\/p>\n<p>Crystal Palace ask Man City about Manuel Akanji amid Marc Guehi speculation \u2013 report<\/p>\n<p>According to Sky Sports News, Crystal Palace have made an approach to sign Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji, 30, in the final week of the transfer window in a reported \u00a315m deal.<\/p>\n<p>Akanji has over 130 appearances for City over three years since his bargain move from Borussia Dortmund and was a key part of their treble-winning side in 2023. He has a contract until 2027 at the Etihad but could be allowed to leave to reduce Pep Guardiola\u2019s squad size.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BREAKING: Crystal Palace have made an approach for Manchester City defender, Manuel Akanji \ud83d\udea8<\/p>\n<p>The South London club look to be in the market for a centre-back, with Liverpool interested in a move for Marc Guehi. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zWV4Mu9hBM\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/zWV4Mu9hBM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SkySportsNews\/status\/1960257695153303841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">August 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>View Tweet<\/p>\n<p>With Palace bracing themselves for <a href=\"https:\/\/tbrfootball.com\/topic\/marc-guehi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marc Guehi\u2019s<\/a> exit this week, rather than let him run down his contract, Akanji could be an elite replacement who would bring title-winning experience to Selhurst Park.<\/p>\n<p>However, in selling Akanji, City may be inadvertently boosting Liverpool\u2019s squad when they are already favourites for the Premier League title.<\/p>\n<p>Man City would be weakening their own title chances by selling Manuel Akanji<\/p>\n<p>On one hand, Pep Guardiola has been clear of the need to reduce his squad size as he is currently forced to omit senior players from his squad each week, so Palace\u2019s reported interest in Akanji could come at a beneficial time.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"684\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2231420024-1024x684.jpg\" alt=\"Marc Guehi in action for Crystal Palace against Fredrikstad in a UEFA Conference League Play-off\" class=\"wp-image-978741\" \/>Photo by Ryan Pierse\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>But on the other, Akanji can play at both centre-back and right-back and has been slightly more reliable than John Stones when it comes to injuries. Akanji has operated in the midfield areas at times, so losing him would place more pressure on City\u2019s thin options at full-back.<\/p>\n<p>And then there is the Liverpool factor. If Akanji was Palace\u2019s replacement for Guehi, Liverpool would have quality cover at centre-back, strengthening their chances of retaining their Premier League title.<\/p>\n<p>So City may have to choose between prioritising their own long-term plans against potentially handing Liverpool another weapon in this season\u2019s title race.<\/p>\n<p>  <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester City have shown their best and worst so far in their latest Premier League title challenge with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[5000,18,19,17,1009,2353,20338,6013,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-24500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-crystal-palace","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-manchester-city","14":"tag-manuel-akanji","15":"tag-marc-guehi","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}