Manchester City reportedly targeted Bernd Leno during his time with Bayer Leverkusen a year prior to his move to Arsenal.
According to Lu Martin and Pol Ballus’ new book ‘Pep’s City: The making of a superteam’, Manchester City eyed up Leno and Ederson before eventually settling on the latter to join their team.
The report claims that Pep Guardiola opted for Ederson, although both were deemed to be good targets for the club at the time.
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Arsenal will surely be grateful that Manchester City did not sign Leno, given his form for the Gunners since joining the club from Leverkusen.
Despite Arsenal’s poor defending in recent seasons, Leno has been a standout between the sticks. He kept Arsenal in games single-handedly at times last season, with his excellent reflexes and agility. The German has been prone to the occasional error, but his terrific saves more than make up for the odd lapse in concentration.
Leno is also good at playing out with the ball at the back, even if some of the defenders in front of him are not, which makes it easy to see why City were interested in him. Modern goalkeepers at the top level need to be comfortable with the ball at their feet, and Leno certainly is.
