The interesting bit here is not even the number, it is the request from Maresca because that makes it sound less like random gossip and more like a manager actually pushing for a specific profile, and if that is the case then City will at least listen because they have always been ruthless when a target fits what they want, but then you step back and remember how many of these stories end up as nothing more than a headline and a pile of agent noise and suddenly the whole thing feels like a huge overreaction from everyone, which is basically football now, one rumour and everybody is rewriting the window before lunch, then by evening someone is calling it a masterstroke and someone else is calling it a disaster and honestly the cycle never stops