City have finally signed Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City for around £60 million pounds, that’s around $80 million dollars, which is right up there with our club record transfers. The 27-year-old Algeria will only strengthen our team even more and hopefully he can pick up a second Premier League medal in his career after picking one up in 2016 with LCFC.

The contract for Mahrez is a five-year deal and with the way money is these days, I reckon getting him for the price we have is an absolute bargain, especially compared to the money we were paying for defenders last summer. Mahrez himself has already made a few statements as well:

“I am so pleased to have joined City, a side playing great football under Pep Guardiola. They’re redefining the English game and I wanted to be a part of it,” Mahrez said on City’s website.

“Watching them from afar has been a pleasure. Pep is committed to playing attacking football, which is a perfect for me, and City’s performances last season were outstanding … I believe my own game can develop under Pep’s management.”

Whilst at Leicester City he made 180 appearances and scored 48 goals, however it was his partnership with Jamie Vardy and the amount of assists he set-up for him that stands out for me. We of course already have plenty of players who can create so much, but adding Mahrez, who’s had a good rest of the summer as well, is only going to give us another attacking option. Especially in the Champions League, which he already has experience of playing in already, after his Leicester side got to the Quarter-Finals in 2017 before losing to Atletico Madrid by two goals to one on aggregate.

I’m fully confident we can win the Premier League again this year and if we can, that’ll be another first, as so far we have never been able to retain a title after winning it the previous year.

That will change this year I’m sure of it. In fact I’m so sure I’ve decided to bet a fair chunk of my season’s betting budget on City to win the league. Over the summer, after reading a few reviews I installed a couple of new betting apps on my iPhone and as a result I was able to get better odds on City than I was expecting. They’re still short as we’re obviously favourites, but I still say it’s a great bet.

We won’t win it by as many points as we did last year but under Pep we certainly have enough to stay ahead of the others. Retaining the Premier League is priority, but you know Pep and the owners will once again want to win the The Champions League. Let’s hope for both.

Our up coming fixtures for August 2018 are:

Sunday 5th August – FA Community Shield
Chelsea 15:00 Manchester City

Sunday 12th August – Premier League
Arsenal 16:00 Manchester City

Sunday 19th August – Premier League
Manchester City 13:30 Huddersfield Town

Saturday 25th August – Premier League
Wolverhampton Wanderers 12:30 Manchester City