How Good Is New Manchester City Signing Ante Palaversa

The January transfer window has finally come to an end and while it was not too exciting there were a number of deals carried out by the EPL teams. The most noteworthy deals included Denis Suarez to Arsenal, Dominic Solanke to Bournemouth, and Christian Pulisic to Chelsea and Miguel Almiron to Newcastle United. In this article, I will talk about new Manchester City deadline day signing Ante Palaversa who has just joined from Hajduk Split for a fee estimated to be around £7.2 million and you can find out further info if you read here. New deals happen all the time and we would not be surprised to see more developments within this area in the future.

Palaversa is only 18 years old and plays in midfield. The player is from Croatia and the deal agreed between Man City and Hajduk Split includes the player been loaned back to the club so he can continue to play regular first-team football before joining his new teammates in the summer.

Palaversa is full of bags of potential and has the right attributes to make it to the top level in football. At 6ft 2in and 77kg, he will be able to cope with the physical demands of the Premier League. He is not a one trick pony as his game is extremely well-rounded and has a very high technical skill level for such a young age.

His best position is in central midfield and excels when playing the defensive midfielder role. Due to the fact he is right-footed his best side to play on is the left and can struggle sometimes if selected to play on the right-hand side but this should improve over time as he is still only very young.

It is going to be very difficult for Palaversa to get into the Manchester City first team when you consider the quality of the squad is world-class. To spend over £7 million Pep Guardiola must see lots of potential in the 18-year-old which is why they signed him on deadline day. It is hard to see the player breaking into the first team any time soon but if he fills his potential he has a great chance of making his way to the top of the game within the next few years. One of the problems for the player is going to be getting game time so he may do pre-season training with his new teammates but then be loaned out once more to gain experience.

There have been many comparisons between the player and Luka Modric due to both being from Croatia along with playing a deep-lying midfielder role. Palaversa does not have the passing ability of Modric yet but he is in a class of his own when it comes to that so if Palaversa does reach those levels then Man City have got a bargain.

The only other player that Man City bought during the January transfer window 2019 was 22-year-old Ko Itakura from Japan. They paid around £1 million for the defender who has been loan out straight away to Groningen in the Dutch league.