Manchester City’s spending spree continued.
On deadline day, the four-in-a-row Premier League champions brought in midfielder Nico González from Porto, paying his reported £50m release clause.
This takes the Sky Blues’ January spending to £178m, following on from the signings of Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis, Omar Marmoush and Juma Bah which, as Philip Buckingham of the Athletic notes, means they spent more than all 19 other Premier League clubs combined in this window, as well as four times more than the next highest-spenders, namely Wolves.
Thus, it is clear that the Citizens are seeking to refresh their squad, so could one of the club’s greatest-ever players fall by the wayside after the arrival of Gonzalez?
Manchester City's next big signing
Deadline day signing González joined Barcelona’s fabled La Masia as an 11-year-old, making 37 appearances for Barça’s first team, before being sold to Porto for €8.5m in the summer of 2023.
Still only 23-years-old, the Spaniard has come in for rave reviews, with Anantaajith Raghuraman of the Athletic stating that he “reads space well and dictates the tempo of games”, expecting him to “slot immediately into Man City’s midfield” where there is currently a “gaping hole”.
Meanwhile, Ali Tweedale for the Premier League adds that Nico’s “ball-carrying ability” stands out given that “he regularly drives through midfield with the ball”, while Nick Wright of Sky Sports describes him as a “box-to-box midfielder”, believing he can certainly play alongside compatriot Rodri, once he returns from injury.
In 131 senior appearances, the January arrival has only racked up 12 goals and 12 assists to date, but seven of these goals, as well as six assists, came during the first half of this season, most recently bagging the winner in the Europa League against Maccabi Tel Aviv to keep Porto in the competition.
This shows he has taken a gigantic leap forward in his development, suggesting he is more than ready to perform at a higher level and, potentially, fill the void of one of City’s greatest ever players.
Manchester City to move on from all-time great
As reported by Jeff Rueter of the Athletic, MLS expansion club San Diego FC are “interested” in signing Kevin De Bruyne this summer, with Tom Bogert, also of the Athletic, claiming the Belgian is considering the move stateside.
De Bruyne, who will celebrate his 34th birthday in June, is out of contract in the summer, and his importance at Man City has been on the decline.
During Sunday’s 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Arsenal, statistically, the midfielder’s favourite opponents, having scored against them eight times, he only came on for the final 18 minutes, accumulating just 1,326 minutes so far, which equates to 41% of Man City’s total minutes.
So, let’s examine De Bruyne’s statistics from across the last five seasons.
Appearances
40
45
49
26
24
Minutes
3,043
3,338
3,685
1,750
1,326
Goals
10
19
10
6
2
Assists
18
15
29
18
6
Goals – xG
-2.1
+9.5
+2.2
+2.4
-1.3
Pass completion %
75.9%
75.4%
72.2%
74.6%
76%
Shot-creating actions
178
197
218
111
93
Touches per 90
58
63
52
67
68
As outlined in the table, in his pomp in 2021/22 and 2022/23, De Bruyne’s numbers were off the scale, with former Liverpool and Tottenham midfielder Jamie Redknapp amongst those labelling him the “Premier League’s best midfielder ever”.
However, what’s clear now, is that the midfielder is declining, with all of his attacking metrics significantly down this season, although pass completion percentage and touches per-90 are up, suggesting he’s operating a lot further away from goal.
Thus, with De Bruyne seemingly on the way out, he may appear irreplaceable, but have Man City just signed a ready-made superstar ready to fill this enormous void? The box-to-box Gonzalez will certainly hope so.
Forget Gonzalez: Man City must regret letting their next Rodri leave for £0
It could have saved them a fortune on the Gonzalez deal
1 ByJoe Nuttall