Jorginho’s agent admits Manchester City move was close

The representative of Jorginho has admitted that Manchester City were initially the favourites to sign the Italian from Napoli before Chelsea pounced on his signature. The Italy international was deemed to have already finalised personal terms with the Citizens but the deal could not go through amid the club’s failure to meet Napoli’s asking price.

Speaking to Radio Kiss Kiss, agent Joao Santos confirmed that personal terms were agreed with the Premier League holders but they were still far off from matching the price tag on the midfielder’s head. As such, the Blues managed to hijack the move at an advanced stage with Jorginho getting the opportunity to reunite with ex-Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri in London.

“It was all done with Jorginho. There was an agreement, but there was no agreement between the clubs. All parties have to agree, and one did not. Then Chelsea asked what the situation was after Sarri arrived and Jorginho went to London. It’s a great start. Going to Chelsea was a unique opportunity, the career of a player is very short and now we hope for the best,” he said.

Jorginho did not have the best of debuts for Chelsea as he struggled to impress against Manchester City in the Community Shield. However, he has since upped his performance in the four matches that have followed and his long-range distribution has been mesmerising to watch from the neutral point of view.

Despite this, the 26-year-old has been quite frank to judging his performances and following a recent Nations League game against Poland, the midfielder admitted that he had been guilty of making numerous mistakes during the match. Poland were the dominant side on Friday night but they had to eventually settle for a 1-1 stalemate after Jorginho scored his maiden Italy goal from the penalty spot.