McAidoo's Hong Kong masterclass puts pressure on City's transfer plans
If Enzo Maresca needed any reminding of the talent already in his building, Ryan McAidoo provided it in the most emphatic way possible in Hong Kong. The 19-year-old came off the bench at half-time and spent the next 45 minutes making life miserable for the Serie A champions, a performance that landed with the timing of a player who knows the club are looking elsewhere.
City drew 1-1 with Inter at the Kai Tak Stadium, with the Italians taking the shootout 3-1 to complete the formalities of the first preseason friendly. But the scoreline was always going to be secondary. The real story was McAidoo, who tormented the Inter defence with a display of dribbling and directness that had the Blues' bench watching closely.
His numbers, via SofaScore, were striking. Fifty touches, 30 of 36 passes completed, two crosses, two of three dribbles completed and eight progressive carries. The headline moment came in the 80th minute, when he picked the ball up on the halfway line, surged past the Inter backline and clipped the post, with substitute keeper Ivan Provedel beaten.
It was the kind of run that tends to make a manager sit up a little straighter. Maresca, for one, needed no convincing.
"We were speaking with the club and since day one I said he is the kind of winger I love. He is very aggressive one v one, he always tries, makes the right decisions. But he is very young and he needs the right path. If you look in the last the clubs I was part of, I always ask for those kinds of wingers."
That last line is worth holding onto. Maresca's history suggests he will get what he wants, and if McAidoo keeps producing cameos like this, the club might conclude the answer to their winger search is already at home. Semenyo, dominant from the left in the first half, only added to that sense of internal options.
City remain in the market this summer, of course. But McAidoo has just made a very persuasive argument that the path to the first team runs through him.