Man City’s search for their next Kevin De Bruyne has picked up in the last week, after the Belgian finally announced his summer departure.
Manchester City will say goodbye to a legend this summer, with Kevin De Bruyne set to leave Man City when his current contract expires.
It brings an end to a successful and rather mind-blowing stint for the 33-year-old who’s been lauded as one of the Premier League greats since announcing his exit, and rightly so.
Even rival managers and players have joined the debate with Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard saying De Bruyne is one of the greats, showcasing just how well-respected the Belgian is in football.
And replacing him is certainly going to be a difficult task for Pep Guardiola. Some report that Man City could replace De Bruyne internally, perhaps with someone like Phil Foden, whilst other reports back Pep to go out and sign a replacement.
Man City are strongly linked with Florian Wirtz ahead of the summer. But there’s another, much cheaper option for incoming director of football Hugo Viana in Xavi Simons at RB Leipzig.
Liverpool and Man City in race to sign RB Leipzig’s Xavi Simons
RB Leipzig and Netherlands international Simons has been linked with Man City for some time now with Pep having tried to sign Simons last year. The 21-year-old has continued to go from strength to strength this time round with seven goals and five assists in 20 Bundesliga outings in 2024/25 so far.
With the summer transfer window fast-approaching, reports linking him with a move to the Premier League are reigniting. But CaughtOffside have revealed that Liverpool are ahead of Man City in the race to sign Simons this summer, who would cost £61million; much less than the minimum fee of £100million needed to sign Wirtz.
CaughtOffside explain that Liverpool have a ‘key advantage’ over Man City in the race to sign Simons because of Dutch manager Arne Slot, and Dutch players Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch.
- READ MORE: Pep Guardiola decides £180k-a-week Man City star is finished at the Etihad, he’s free to leave now
Xavi Simon’s RB Leipzig stats vs Kevin De Bruyne’s Wolfsburg stats
Simons is looking like he’s in a very similar situation to what De Bruyne was at about his age in that he’s impressing in Germany and now backed to seal an exciting Premier League move.
And whilst he definitely shares some similarities with De Bruyne when he was a younger player, he still seems to be a way behind what De Bruyne was at that age, at least in terms of assists.
| Statistic | KDB’s last season in Bundesliga | Xavi Simons in Bundesliga this season |
| Games | 34 | 20 |
| Goals | 10 | 7 |
| Assists | 20 | 5 |
Already we’re seeing that Man City are finding it very difficult to replace De Bruyne and it just goes to show how good a player De Bruyne was and still is.
Pep might have to sign multiple players to replace De Bruyne and even then it might not work. Simons though has huge potential and in the right environment, he could eventually replace De Bruyne’s presence at the Etihad.
That is unless Liverpool win the race.
