Since the end of November, a story has been doing the rounds in Turkey suggesting that both Manchester United and Manchester City were interested in Galatasaray’s young defender Ozan Kabak.
The 18-year-old has attracted a lot of suitors with his performances, and, prior to the weekend, the Turkish club’s president, Mustafa Cengiz, was said to have travelled to England to talk with clubs about a potential €20m deal.
However, Emrah Bayraktar, Galatasaray’s former technical director, told Goal Turkey Kabak probably isn’t ready to make the step up to one of the bigger European clubs just yet, needing more experience before doing so.
He then suggested that Manchester City, should they acquire him, could end up loaning him out to another club to get some regular first-team football,
Bayraktar said: “The board and the player have to think about it. The club first have to ask themselves how much the player is worth. Then, Ozan has to think if a destination will help him develop. Manchester City could transfer Kabak and then loan him to Anderlecht (which seemed to be used as an example).”
This news has obviously travelled to Belgium, where there is a buzz of excitement, but no transfer has taken place yet, and the player isn’t playing under Pep Guardiola as things stand.
To us, it just sounds like Bayraktar was just suggesting a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist yet.
That, or Anderlecht have asked him to talk up a move.
We’ll have to wait and see.
