Manchester City left back Aleksandar Kolarov has signed a two year contract extension to stay at the club.
Kolarov, who had one year left on his current deal, was signed by City in 2010 and looked set to leave the club in 2013 after falling out of favour with previous manager Roberto Mancini.
The Serbian was given a new lease of life by new City manager Manuel Pellegrini and despite sharing the left back berth with Gael Clichy last season he turned in a series of impressive performances to earn the trust of his manager and the fans. He made 24 league appearances last term.
Commenting on the deal, Kolarov told the official Manchester City website:
“I am very happy and very proud of this new contract. I will give to this club probably the best stages of my football career and I am very happy that I continue with this club which feels now like my home.
“Last season I played a lot and I think I proved to people in the club that they can believe in me and the result was that I was offered a new contract and I was happy to sign.
“When we won two trophies last season, I was happy with what we did and I think it’s good for the club and for me that we are here now.
“I think we can do a lot more things in the future. We’ve won everything in England and I think we can do a lot more in Europe. So we’ll try to repeat what we did in England and try to win something in Europe. The most important thing in football is the result and I think we can do a lot more in the future.”
One player who will not be signing for City, or indeed Manchester United, is Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas. The former Arsenal captain qualifies as a home grown player after signing for the Gunners from an early age and continuing his development at Arsenal but was deemed surplus to requirements after a disappointing season at the Nou Camp.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho moved quickly to snap him up after Arsenal decided not to exercise their first refusal option for him and Fabregas will take up the number 4 shirt when he joins the West London club after the World Cup.
Fabregas would have been a welcome addition to the ‘home grown’ ranks at the Etihad while it’s been long known that Manchester United have coveted the Spaniard but their interest cooled since the appointment of Louis Van Gaal as manager after the World Cup.
Fabregas is just the type of hard working but creative midfielder that fits into the Chelsea way of playing. He could well be the perfect replacement for the outgoing Frank Lampard. Chelsea’s potential signing of Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa they could very well be City’s main title rivals next season.