Manchester City don’t often get it wrong when it comes to moving players on.
We have seen a number of stars depart the Etihad Stadium in recent times, but hardly any could be suggested as ‘regrets’.
Perhaps the one player some at Manchester City will be slightly disappointed about is Cole Palmer, who left the club last year to join Chelsea in a £42.5 million deal.
It was seen as a good sale at the time given Palmer’s lack of first-team experience. But 31 goals and 20 assists in 54 games later, it is safe to say that Chelsea got themselves a bargain.
In the summer just gone, City sold Sergio Gomez to Real Sociedad. It’s early days for him at his new club and he hasn’t quite had the same explosive start as Palmer.
But he has certainly done very well and his new manager is over the moon to have signed him.
Imanol Alguacil raves over ‘such a talent’ Sergio Gomez
Gomez joined City in the summer of 2022 from Anderlecht, but moved on after two years after struggling for regular game time under Pep Guardiola.
He made just 38 appearances for City with a lot of those cameo appearances.
In the end, it was decided that Gomez should move on and City sold the player for £8.4 million.
Gomez has been thriving so far for Real Sociedad, making 10 appearances and clocking up three assists already. Interestingly, he has mostly been operating further forward and not at left-back as he did most of the time for City.
His manager Imanol Alguacil was speaking about Gomez recently and it’s clear he is delighted to have signed the Spaniard.
He’s quoted by SPORT as saying: “He’s a great player. If I say it so much, it’s because it’s been doing something good. That he comes from City says it all. I’m not going to find out. He is a great player, with great maturity for his age.
“Since he arrived, without doing pre-season, I have put him in several positions and I have asked him for different things, because he is such a talent, the quality, the commitment and the head he has that we can afford it.”
Gomez gets first Spain call-up after leaving Man City
As a result of Gomez’s impressive performances of late, the player recently received his first call-up to the Spain squad.
He wasn’t initially called up but has since been drafted in after Nico Williams picked up an injury.
Gomez has made 19 appearances for the Spain U21s, and has actually scored 10 goals having played mostly as a winger. But Luis de la Fuente has deemed Gomez worthy of making the step up to the senior squad, and he could potentially get his first cap against Denmark on Saturday.
Following his lack of involvement for City, SPORT now report that Gomez has ‘has become a vital player’ at Sociedad. Apparently, ‘the team is clearly looking for him’, and Gomez has adapted ‘perfectly’ to his new dressing room and also the city.
It is great to see him enjoying more prominence at Real Sociedad. Gomez sent a heartfelt message after leaving City and is a player most fans would love to see do well.
It was a shame he couldn’t feature more for City, but the level was just so high and Guardiola’s preference for using centre-backs as full-backs has been clear for some time now.
City do hold a sell-on clause over Gomez, and it may well be that the club are able to benefit from that in the coming years.
