With the club's respective managerial appointments, we will come to see next season's Manchester derby less as a football match and more a vast, allegorical struggle, between Pep Guardiola's pursuit for artistic perfection and Jose Mourinho's persecution of any artistic pursuit.
Mourinho would appear to have drawn first blood by landing Eric Bailly from Villareal, a defender whom Guardiola was said to be interested in signing. Guardiola, it would seem, has recovered from this brief human resource-related disappointment and turned his attentions to Borussia Dortmund. Having already signed Ilkay Gundogan from BVB, Pep has now set his sights on Dortmund's prolific striker Pierre-Emerick-Aubameyang.
That most ubiquitous of hacks, Sky Sources, are reporting this evening that City are in talks to wrench another jewel from Dortmund's crown in the shape of Aubameyang. The Gabon striker won the Bundesliga Player of the Year award last season, having scored 25goals in 29 games.
While it is another installment in the irretrievably sad exodus of world-class players from Dortmund, the prospect of an attacking trident of Aguero, Aubameyang and De Bruyne propelled by the frenzied avidity of Guardiola is a mouth-watering one.
It is another example of Guardiola's 'if-I-only-occasionally-beat-them-they-can-join-me' policy. At Bayern, he signed Xabi Alonso, the heartbeat of a Real Madrid side that occasionally bothered him. Now, having left Bayern, he has arrived at City with Gundogan in tow, and now, perhaps with Aubameyang too.
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