Negredo and Jovetic set for City as Pellegrini doubles up

With Mario Balotelli and Carlos Tevez gone, and the future of Edin Dzeko far from certain, it’s high-time new Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini started adding to his options in attack.

And by the time he returns from South Africa with the City squad, his Sporting Director Txiki Begiristain is expected to have secured the signatures of two of City’s top targets, Stevan Jovetic and Alvaro Negredo.

City’s failure to defend their maiden Premier League title last season was largely due to their underwhelming form in front of goal.

Compared to the 93 they notched in 2011/2012, they scored only 66 last term, fewer than Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and of eventual champions Manchester United.

Conceding only five more goals last term than they did they year that Sergio Aguero’s last-gasp strike secured the title, it doesn’t take an Opta statistician to figure out what was missing at the Etihad – goals.

City are currently preparing for next season with a pre-season tournament in South Africa, and should they, as expected, confirm the signings of both Jovetic and Negredo by the time they return to the UK, their odds of 11/5 to win the Premier League next season could prove very tempting.

Jovetic scored 13 Serie A goals for Fiorentina last season, while Negredo found the back of the net 25 times for Sevilla in La Liga.

Those 38 goals would have been most welcome last season, where Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero and Mario Balotelli combined mustered only 24 between them, with Dzeko top scoring on 14 goals.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.