Manchester City were left frustrated in their efforts to break down Inter at The Etihad in the opening game of the Champions League season on Wednesday night.
Pep Guardiola‘s side were held to a 0-0 draw by the Serie A champions as they failed to breach Yann Sommer’s goal and did not create a single ‘big chance’ for Erling Haaland to test the Switzerland international.
Savinho and Jack Grealish were selected to start on the flanks and they both ended the game with zero shots on target and zero ‘big chances’ created for the team.
The Spanish head coach will surely want more from his wide players for the rest of the season, particularly after Jeremy Doku and Grealish combined for six Premier League goals last season.
Finding high-quality wingers to consistently provide quality in the final third has not always been an easy task for the Cityzens, as illustrated by their addition of Scott Sinclair in the 2012/13 campaign.
How much City paid for Scott Sinclair
Roberto Mancini wanted to add to his options in the wide areas ahead of the 2012/13 season and eventually opted to bring in the English attacker.
It was reported that the Premier League side splashed out a fee of £8m to sign the Team GB winger from fellow top-flight outfit Swansea in the summer of 2012.
The 23-year-old whiz took the number 11 shirt and was looking to step his game up a level after a return of eight goals and four assists in 38 Premier League games for the Swans in the 2011/12 campaign.
Unfortunately, however, Sinclair was unable to break into the City side on a regular basis and did not convince Mancini that he was good enough to start week-in-week-out.
The former Swansea star ended the season with zero goals and zero assists in 15 appearances in all competitions for the club, including 11 outings in the top-flight.
Sinclair then spent the following season on loan at West Bromwich Albion, producing zero goals and one assist in eight Premier League games, before playing four times for Manchester City in the first half of the 2014/15 campaign.
The English winger was sent out on loan to Aston Villa for the second half of that season, racking up three goals in 12 games, before the Villans signed him permanently for a reported fee of £2.5m in the summer of 2015.
This shows that City had a howler with the £8m signing as he did not produce a single goal or assist for the club in the Premier League before moving on for a £5.5m loss three years later.
That particular deal was even more frustrating for the Cityzens when you consider that they had been interested in signing another forward before they signed Sinclair – Lille sensation Eden Hazard.
Manchester City’s interest in Eden Hazard
In May of 2012, The BBC reported that Manchester City and Manchester United were both in talks with Lille over a deal to sign the 21-year-old star.
The Belgian wizard had claimed that he would be playing in Manchester in the 2012/13 campaign, before the end of the previous season, and that made it appear as though City and United were the only two clubs in the race for his signature.
Lille were willing to cash in on their star forward, for the right price, but did not want to sanction an exit for the attacker until their final Ligue 1 match, which meant that the Red Devils and the Cityzens had to bide their time and wait to secure a deal.
However, Chelsea then won the Champions League, beating Bayern Munich on penalties in the final, at the end of May and that convinced the Belgium international to sign for the Blues, seemingly turning down Manchester City and Manchester United in the process.
Hazard reportedly completed a £32m move from Lille to Stamford Bridge and revealed that the club’s success in the Champions League made him decide to sign for them, whilst adding that the youthful nature of the squad was appealing to him.
The 21-year-old star ended up being one that got away for City as he went from strength to strength in the Premier League for Chelsea, whilst Scott Sinclair struggled at The Etihad.
Eden Hazard’s soaring value
The £32m that the Blues reportedly splashed out on the Lille phenomenon turned out to be a huge bargain because he was a star in England for the following seven years.
Hazard hit the ground running in London with a return of 13 goals and 21 assists in all competitions during his debut campaign with Chelsea, and he followed that up with 17 goals and eight assists in his second season.
The Belgian magician, who was hailed as a “wizard” by the late Ray Wilkins, went on to score 110 goals and assist a further 85 in 352 appearances for the club in all competitions before his exit in 2019.
His best return for goals and assists in a single Premier League campaign had to wait until his final season with the Blues in the 2018/19 term.
2018/19 Premier League | Eden Hazard |
|---|---|
Appearances | 37 |
Goals | 16 |
Big chances created | 18 |
Assists | 15 |
Key passes per game | 2.5 |
Dribbles completed per game | 3.7 |
As you can see in the table above, Hazard was a regular provider of both goals and assists in the top-flight, with 31 direct goal contributions in 37 appearances.
His incredible form that year convinced Spanish giants Real Madrid to swoop in and sign the Belgian sensation for a reported fee of up to £130m in the summer of 2019.
This meant that Chelsea got seven years of fantastic service, over 100 goals, and a profit of just shy of £100m out of their £32m deal to sign Hazard ahead of Manchester City in 2012.
He was, therefore, one that got away for the Cityzens as they missed out on a hugely talented and valuable player before signing Sinclair, who struggled at The Etihad, as an alternative wide option.
