After being officially presented, Aymeric Laporte had his first game wearing the Manchester City shirt, where he started as a starter against West Bromwich in the Premier League. At the end of the game, coach Josep Guardiola had words of praise for his new signing.
"All teams work to improve their squads. When you see Laporte's performance, you think 'wow, what a center back.' People say he is expensive. Maybe he is cheap, we'll see," expressed Guardiola.
Manchester City, under Josep Guardiola, paid 65 million euros to the Spanish Athletic Club for Laporte's transfer, a sum that has been described as exorbitant by the specialized press, especially considering that the money requested for Alexis Sánchez was lower than that of the Frenchman, but at the time, the citizens withdrew from the bidding for the Chilean considering him expensive.
Regarding the expenditure made by City, Josep Guardiola commented: "If you want to play this way, I'm not a magician, I need great players. That's why we have signed so many players. Many of them were reaching the end of their contracts, were over 30 years old... now we have signed Mendy, Bernardo Silva, Sané, Walker... All of them young, with room to improve at this club."