Manchester City have now officially announced the capture of the Spanish international on a four year contract,after the announcement on Sevilla’s official website last week that a deal had been agreed for twenty seven year old Jesus Navas to move to Etihad. Jesus Navas will move from Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán to Manchester for a fee reported to be around £15 million with this having the potential to rise to £16 million over the course of Navas’ contract with City. Manchester City are the early front runners in this summer’s transfer business with the Premier League runners up having already announced the £30 million signature of Brazilian midfielder Fernandinho, despite not yet having a manager following the dismissal of Roberto Mancini. Although, it is expected Manuel Pellegrini will be confirmed as the Manchester City manager sometime this week.
Jesus Navas has been a mainstay in both the Spanish and Sevilla sides for a number of years with Navas playing a key role in Spain’s successful 2010 World Cup and 2012 European Championship campaigns. He will give Manchester City an option in the wide areas that the club has lacked over the past twelve months with Scott Sinclair struggling to make an impact at the club following the departure of Adam Johnson. Navas is known for his clever wing play with his high technical ability often allowing him to hold up the ball and bring the full back into play which will serve Manchester City well with Pablo Zabaleta having arguably his best season at the club last year. It must also be said that whilst Navas doesn’t boast the blistering pace of say Theo Walcott or Aaron Lennon, the Andalusian born winger can cover a lot of ground relatively quickly and will give English defences a real problem in trying to shackle him.
Jesus Navas has predominantly featured as an attacking midfielder on the right hand side for Unai Emery’s Sevilla side this past season with Navas contributing six assists in thirty seven La Liga appearances with Navas not contributing any league goals. Jesus Navas did also boast according to Who Scored an 80% pass success rate in the 37 La Liga appearances he made in the 2012-2013 campaign which is definitely something Manchester City can look forward to in terms of increased ball retention.
Jesus Navas has been close to a move to England before when the former Sevilla man almost moved to Chelsea in the summer of 2006 following Sevilla’s successful UEFA Cup final victory over Steve McClaren’s Middlesbrough. However,this move broke down due to Navas’ chronic homesickness which has plagued him throughout his life. Navas has in the past had real issues leaving the area in and around Sevilla and his hometown Los Palacios y Villafranca with the homesickness at times causing him to suffer from anxiety attacks when with the Spain national squad on training camps. Navas, following the breakdown of his move to the Premier League’s elite club at the time, forced himself to seek help and has undergone extensive counselling in the years since 2006 to overcome his pathological homesickness.
It appears as if Navas is confident enough in himself that he has overcome his homesickness and as a result has appeared significantly positive about his move to Manchester City with the Spaniard being quoted as saying
[quote]”I’m going to a great club in England and I want to continue developing my game there. The club has put a lot of faith in me and I want to repay them out on the pitch.”[/quote]
Jesus Navas also confirmed that he had decided on a move to Manchester City, which suggests that new Director of football Txiki Begiristain and Chief Executive Ferran Soriano are very much in control of the signings that are being made at Manchester City. The former Barcelona pairing are unwilling to allow the same mistakes to be made in the transfer market that were made by City last summer with Roberto Mancini not having the full backing of Brian Marwood to go and push for certain players, mainly Daniele De Rossi.
Manchester City supporters won’t have to wait long to see their new signing in competitive action with Jesus Navas being part of Spain’s Confederations Cup squad with La Furia Rocha’s first game taking place on June 16th against Uruguay.
