In another realm, Antoine Semenyo would be gliding past defenders in the rain of the Moroccan winter, scoring goals and knee sliding his way to celebrate on the lush pitches in Tangier, Marrakech, Fez, Casablanca and Rabat.
However, due to Ghana’s beyond shocking failure to qualify to the AFCON after finishing bottom of its qualification group that had Sudan, Niger and Angola in it, the AFC Bournemouth player isn’t in Morocco to attempt to bump his stock even further up as one of the hottest players on the transfer market.
Had Ghana made it to the 2025 AFCON and continued with the brilliant form he has been on this season, there would be no hesitation for prospective teams to cough up 65 million pounds to activate the release clause in the Ghanaian player’s contract.
Perhaps this is the reason reported interest from Manchester United and Chelsea for Semenyo have cooled overnight but from all indications Liverpool and Manchester City are the forerunners for the signature of Semenyo.
Per the reports of football transfer experts, Semenyo is angling towards a move to Man City though Liverpool look on paper as the right fit for the former Bristol City wing-forward.
For starters, the Reds have lacked intensity in their attack to press opponents into making mistakes to create turnovers and convert them into goals as was the case for several years in the Klopp era. Losing guys like Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez have hurt Liverpool on this front but Semenyo is a vital part of Bournemouth’s vaunted turnover machine under Andoni Iraola and would easily aid solve this problem at Anfield.
Beyond creating turnovers, Semenyo’s goals production keep trending upwards season after season and at the time of writing this piece, the soon to be 26 year old Semenyo has 11 contributions (eight goals and three assists) in 16 league games.
That kind of production as a complementary attacking piece is exactly what Liverpool need at this time Alexander Isak is out for the next two months with a broken fibula, Mo Salah’s future uncertain and Federico Chiesa clearly not Arne Slot’s cup of team, Semenyo definitely would be a shoe-in at Liverpool.
A solution to the losses that Liverpool endured during their October-November run by Arne Slot was to overload the team with as many midfielders as possible to make the Reds hard to breakdown. Thus far, it is working as Liverpool are unbeaten six games in a row.
On the flip side, playing all the first choice midfielders leaves Liverpool light on the bench and in insurance package in the face of injuries.
Having Antoine Semenyo in the ranks corrects both possible problems as Semenyo provides the width the likes of Dominik Szoboszlai, Florian Wirtz and Alexis MacAllister don’t necessarily provide without compromising the team defensively due to his work rate.
At surface value, Antoine Semenyo leaning towards a move to Man City looks odd as Pep Guardiola’s side seem quite fattened in the wing areas. Between Jeremy Doku, Oscar Bobb, Phil Foden, Rayan Cherki and Savinho and to an extent Omar Marmoush, Man City are spoilt for choice in this department but none has the profile of Semenyo who is a direct, speedy strong runner with a great work rate and as indicated above, a still improving goal return.
Doku is blistering fast and a brilliant dribbler but loves to zig zag his way past fullbacks instead of going directly towards goal after beating his man unlike Semenyo. Bobb is dealing with the latest injury to hit him in recent months after missing all of last season with a fractured leg and lacks the foot speed to keep up with Doku and Erling Haaland on breaks.
Cherki and Foden are at their best when they operate through the middle while Savinho (and Bobb) is likely to be sold after a mundane start to life at the club. Marmoush still has a future at the club provided he stays patient and is content being Haaland’s replacement.
There was a time when goalkeepers were rated by their ability to stop shots hence the term shot-stoppers as a reference to the position but that changed when goalkeepers who contributed to maintaining and starting possession from goal became the hottest commodities in the sport.
The man who was crucial in this change, Pep Guardiola, is leading another change but this time to the old ways as seen by letting go of Ederson and replacing him with Gianliuigi Donnarumma who is poor in the passing game. These days, Guardiola is all in on seizing “moments” in games and not too concerned about dominating possession and controlling the flow of the game as he used to obsess over.
This change in approach has resulted in Man City scoring more goals in transition in just 17 games this season than they did in the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons combined. While Antoine Semenyo isn’t necessary a Pep Guardiola type of winger who often tend to be “technicians” than all-out blitzers, he would still fit into the Spanish manager’s team be it the present iteration or the old school Tiki Taka iteration considering there was room for the likes of Pedro Rodriguez in his vaunted Barcelona teams from 2011.
Liverpool’s transition has been quite rocky as things stand, which is quite expected and could end up missing out on winning a title this season. For Man City, the club is as alive in all four competitions as its direct rivals Arsenal and have a higher chance to win a title than Liverpool.
After scrapping his way through the barrels of English football to the top level and about to turn 26 in a few days, Antoine Semenyo has reached that point in his career where players usually starting winning titles and with Pep Guardiola, that could be sorted as soon as possible.
The chance to play under perhaps the greatest coach of all time Pep Guardiola is a huge flex for players to have on their CV and in Semenyo’s case, he could well have two of such major flex having played under Andoni Iraola who is among the Next Big Things in the coaching ranks.
Looking deeper beyond the surface value oddity a move to Man City brings, there are reasons to believe that Antoine Semenyo is inching towards possibly making the best decision in his professional football career.
