Andy Townsend has highlighted the top level that Ilkay Gundogan has reached and can now be considered to be on par with the likes of David Silva and Yaya Toure.
The midfielder recently helped his side win the FA Cup by scoring both goals in their recent 2-1 win over Manchester United, having already secured the Premier League title.
With the 32-year-old now in with a chance of making history and becoming the first Man City captain to lift the Champions League this weekend, the topic of Gundogan’s status as one of the club’s top midfielders has come up.
Townsend highlights Gundogan importance
Speaking on talkSPORT, Darren Bent put this question to his co-presenter Townsend.
He said: “When you look at Gundogan and the players that City have had over the years, when you look at some of the midfield players that Manchester City have had over the years, and they’ve been blessed with some great ones, by the way, certainly in my era, but I’m talking about the likes of David Silva, Yaya Toure, you’ve got [Kevin] De Bruyne, Nigel De Jong, Fernandinho, of course, would Gundogan be on that top table?”
In response, Townsend had this to say about the German.
He said: “He certainly has become a significant player.”
Since joining the Manchester club back in 2016 from Borussia Dortmund for £20m, Gundogan has gone on to make 303 appearances for City across all competitions, scoring 60 goals and delivering 40 assists along the way.
Bearing in mind how Toure scored his fair share of important goals for the Citizens during his time there, including in the 2011 FA Cup semi-final and final, this shows why the two midfielders have been spoken about in terms of how significant they were and have been for the club.
Looking ahead to the weekend, if Gundogan can find the net against Inter Milan on Saturday and then go on to lift the trophy for the club, there’s no doubt he’ll be seen as one of the club’s most significant players in modern history.
