Manchester City's top target this summer is a centre-back, a position they are very well stocked in.
After signing Mateo Kovacic to at least fill the hole left behind by departed captain Ilkay Gundogan, City have now made Josko Gvardiol their top priority. RB Leipzig want £85m for the Croatian star plus additional performance-related payments.
City are not yet ready to meet that steep valuation but talks are advanced and all parties still expect a deal can be done. Signing Gvardiol is the Blues' biggest piece of business as Pep Guardiola looks to build upon a side that won a historic treble last season.
If so much is being spent on a centre-back then he isn't coming in to play second fiddle. Should Gvardiol arrive, he will almost certainly be slotted straight in to form what would be a formidable partnership with Ruben Dias.
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But where does that leave the rest of the centre-back pecking order? City currently have four senior central defenders on the books and most of them saw a healthy amount of minutes last season.
Only Aymeric Laporte grew frustrated with his lack of action and there is an expectation that the Spain international will leave the Etihad should Gvardiol rock up. Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain have been heavily linked but no concrete offers have been registered as of yet. Given Laporte's immense quality and the two years remaining on his contract, City will likely be aiming to fetch a decent price for him.
Whether Laporte stays or remains, the fact is that should Gvardiol be signed then City's two centre-back positions will be taken. Thankfully for the others, Guardiola has grown a penchant for playing centre-backs across the whole of his back line.
Despite being a manager that has championed full-backs for the majority of his career and once spent over £130million in a single summer on them, the Blues boss has gone in a new direction in 2023. Out went Joao Cancelo and Kyle Walker and in came Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji and John Stones.
The trio all enjoyed excellent campaigns and all played a mixture of full-back and centre-back but their time in the middle may be reduced further still if Gvardiol is signed. That leaves just two spots for them as well as Rico Lewis, Sergio Gomez, Kyle Walker and Cancelo all to compete for - that is if the last three stay at the club.
Of course, there are bound to be openings at centre-back with injuries, suspension and rotation but for the most part full-back will be the route into the starting XI and that's a lot of players gunning for few spots. Akanji, Ake and Stones especially all deserve to continue in the side after not once letting their team down last season.
There is one way all three could be accommodated though and it would solve another problem in the process.
The remarkable rise of John Stones the midfielder was one of the many great stories of City's season. The England international was given the complex role of moving into midfield when in possession from defence - be it centre-back or right-back - and he did it excellently.
Initially, it was his excellent positioning and reading of the game that earned him plaudits but as he grew in the position his confidence on the ball continued to grow. On the biggest stage of the Champions League final, Stones absolutely bossed it and was City's best player.
He played in an even more advanced role than normal and was sublime in possession, always making the correct decision on the ball which often meant creative and incisive passes. He has shown he could make midfield his permanent home rather than just visiting there while coming out of defence. That would allow Ake and Akanji to still start at full-back, with the latter able to fulfil the role of moving out of the back.
With his ever improving skill on the ball along with his already excellent tactical awareness and defence prowess, Stones might just have the capabilities to fulfil Gundogan's role in the side and solve that problem. City are bound to miss the German who played such a crucial role in the team and he will take some replacing.
Kovacic at least replenishes the midfield numbers but City don't see him as a direct replacement and attempted to sign Declan Rice before walking away from a deal when the price went too high. After Rice, possible alternatives look thin on the ground but what if Gundogan's replacement is already at the club? What if it's Stones?
Should City sign Gvardiol, then it will be just as interesting to see what changes he sparks in the side as it will to see him perform.
