Noel Gallagher's Excitement for Enzo Fernandez at Manchester City

Noel Gallagher doesn’t bother dressing it up. “Enzo is exactly the player we need,” he snapped on Talksport, the words landing with the certainty of a man who has seen the bad years and the gilded ones at Manchester City.

The Oasis frontman, a lifelong City die-hard, has fallen hard for Enzo Fernandez before the Argentine has even settled into his new surroundings. Not because of a highlight reel. Because of attitude.

Gallagher zeroed in on Enzo’s competitive edge, the streak of nastiness and confrontation he believes City’s midfield has been crying out for.

“We’ve been missing that,” he admitted, before reaching for a name that still crackles with meaning in English football: Roy Keane.

He was careful not to overstep the mark. This was not about putting Enzo on Keane’s pedestal, not yet. It was about a type. A presence.

“We wanted a player similar to Roy Keane, not to put him on his level, but one who stands up to opponents,” Gallagher said, underlining that, for him, personality matters more than any passing stat or heat map.

That is the crux of his excitement. In a squad laced with technical brilliance, he sees Enzo as the one who might snarl, bark, and set the tone in the middle of the pitch. The one who makes opponents think twice about wandering into City’s engine room.

“I want that at City, because Phil (Foden) is not going to do it, Elliott Anderson is not going to do it,” he reflected.

It was not a criticism of their talent. It was a demand for a different flavour. A midfielder who relishes the confrontation, who enjoys the scrap as much as the pass.

For Gallagher, Enzo brings an intensity that has been missing, a harder edge to complement City’s silk. The Argentine, in his eyes, is the player who can impose respect in the midfield battle, the one who changes the temperature of a game with his sheer presence.

And it is not just what Enzo might do with the ball that has hooked him. It is how he has carried himself from the moment he walked through the door.

“I’m happy that he’s here,” Gallagher admitted, before hinting at a small detail since the Argentine’s arrival that particularly struck him – a gesture, an attitude, a way of speaking – something he reads as a clear statement of intent.

City already have the artistry. Gallagher believes Enzo might be the one who brings the edge to match it.