Manchester City close to signing Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City for £75 million

Manchester City are very close to signing Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City for £75 million, according to the Leicester Mercury.

The Algerian will become the second most expensive signing in Premier League history, being second only to Manchester United’s Paul Pogba, who was signed for £90 million from Juventus in the summer of 2016.

Riyad Mahrez’s move to the Etihad Stadium had initially been seen as an opportunity to bring the talented Patrick Roberts to Leicester City; however, the Citizens, it seems, weren’t very much in favour of a cash-plus-player deal (£50 million and Roberts).

But Leicester won’t care much, seeing as there is no shortage of proven talents that they can buy with the money that they’ll be getting for the 27-year old winger.

Wilfred Zaha, who had an astonishing season, Hatem Ben Arfa and Jack Grealish have all been touted as potential replacements, though Claude Puel is yet to specifically pursue either of those players.

Recent reports do suggest that his relations with Ben Arfa might mean that the Paris Saint-Germain player is the one to come in for Riyad Mahrez, but no one is quite sure if he’d be able to repeat his OGC Nice heroics in the East Midlands after a year on the bench for PSG.

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At this stage, Leicester City can’t really afford a risk. They just have to get the right man to replace who has arguably has been their best player in the Premier League era, or their failure in the transfer market could yet again be their undoing.