Manchester City major midfield rebuild incoming

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Manchester City had a rather complacent summer in 2024, banking on continuity. Following a 3rd place finish and a trophyless campaign, it now seems obvious that they ran it back one year too many. Rodri’s injury might have been the squad’s biggest problem, but other players failed to perform up to their top previous standards as well.

Kevin De Bruyne’s departure has already been confirmed, but City looks likely to replace at least one of their other midfielders, if not two. 30-year-old Bernardo Silva had had 2921 minutes for the team this season, while 34-year-old İlkay Gündoğan had 2406 and 31-year-old Mateo Kovačić had 2378. That’s a lot of minutes for over-30 midfielders.

Fabrizio Romano is reporting that all of Morgan Gibbs-White, Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reinders are targets for City. And while Fab frames MGW or Cherki as a bit of an either-or, I wouldn’t be shocked if City made an attempt to move on a couple of their older players to sign both of them, or two other young 10-like substances.

Gibbs-White unsurprisingly didn’t put up massive playmaking numbers on a Nottingham Forest team that was very defensively focused and didn’t generate a lot of xG generally. But he proved himself as a very good all-around attacking midfielder, capable of playing as part of a more disciplined shape and offering a bit of a goal threat.

And for the “just watch the games” crowd, I think Gibbs-White is a very talented passer and his numbers were artificially depressed by the system he played in. He’d fit in well at City.

Cherki is a totally different thing entirely. I had a short comment in a rumour roundup a couple of weeks ago that I’d be surprised if City were looking at these two players for the same position, and I still am. While Gibbs-White is a bit of a good at everything, not elite at anything option, Cherki is an elite playmaker who shows little interest in anything but assists and highlight farming.

A big club should absolutely sign this guy. He could definitely rack up the assists on City. But I’d have concerns about pairing him with the No. 8 that City is apparently dead set on acquiring, Tijjani Reijnders.

We’ve covered him before, but he is, much like Cherki, a highlight farmer who does minimal out of possession work. Reijnders has 10 goals in Serie A this season, most of them bangers, to go along with 4 assists. He’s also not much of a ball progressor from deep.

Reijnders is spectacular at arriving late to the top of the box and making the crucial shot or pass, which is certainly a useful skill for any football team. But I’m eternally skeptical of any No. 8 who doesn’t do a ton of ball progression or out of possession work.

I can see the case for a Reijnders-like substance in a team with a sensational all-around holding midfielder and a hard-working, pressing 10. But it’s probably going to take some time for Rodri to work his way back to Ballon d’Or form, while Cherki is one of the few midfielders on earth less interested in out of possession work than Reijnders is.

City have earned the benefit of the doubt with all of their success over the years. There could be some other pieces of the puzzle that we’re not getting any reporting on yet — such as Cherki being more of a Grealish/Doku replacement than a De Bruyne one, and a different profile of midfielder joining this group. But at the moment, what they’re cooking up smells a bit strange.

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More transfer rumours:

• There’s conflicting stuff going around about Bruno Fernandes and his future at Manchester United. GiveMeSport reported that the club would reject any bid, but the Daily Mail say £100m could get them to the negotiating table. If Bruno wants to secure the generational bag in Saudi Arabia, United should take the money.

• The reporting on Alejandro Garnacho is not conflicting at all. ESPN reports the player is unhappy, and The Ornacle says Amorim basically told him to piss off. The current most interested suitor is Napoli.

• A few different outlets are linking Bryan Mbeumo to a United move, so I’m wondering if they have a strategy of signing all the Premier League’s biggest xG overperformers on purpose. Perhaps they’ve invented new analytics that allow them to figure out who has elite finishing skill, or perhaps they’re just very silly.

• With Florian Wirtz apparently telling Bayern Munich that he prefers a move abroad to joining them, the Bavarians are apparently eyeing up a few Premier League players in the same position. Sky Germany says they’re interested in Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma, while the Mirror believes their backup plan is Eberechi Eze.

• The homies at Sky Germany are busy, because they’re also reporting that Arsenal is negotiating with RB Leipzig to sign Benjamin Šeško, and that they prefer him to Viktor Gyökeres.

• Fab says that Chelsea are going to strike a deal to sign Emanuel Emegha from their kind-of-but-not-exactly-subsidiary Strasbourg next summer, letting him stay in Ligue 1 for one more season. I’d like this move a lot for all parties.

• In terms of strikers for this season, Miguel Delaney says Hugo Ekitike is their top target. Like Arsenal, Gyökeres is their backup plan. Interesting that Gyökeres is everyone’s backup plan! I wonder if no one ever meets Sporting’s valuation and he just ends up staying put.

—KM

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