Manchester City are closing in on the remarkable return of Ilkay Gundogan and Pep Guardiola must be delighted.
It had been a very uneventful transfer window for Manchester City, with Julian Alvarez’s departure and Savinho’s arrival the only major moves.
Yet, that all changed this week when the first reports broke that City were considering re-signing Ilkay Gundogan.
Gundogan, the beloved treble-winning captain, left the club for Barcelona a year ago and enjoyed an excellent campaign in La Liga.
However, Barcelona are now having to give one of their most important players away for free just so they can register another big-money signing. A farce City have gleefully taken advantage of.
The latest report from Fabrizio Romano on Wednesday says that Gundogan will sign for City on a one-year deal after reaching an agreement with the club.
City fans could not be happier with the Gundogan news and it must be a relief to Pep Guardiola, who is getting one of his most trusted midfield generals back.
Gundogan doesn’t only fill the hole left by the injury to Oscar Bobb but gives City a quality backup option for Rodri so his burden can be lightened in the new campaign.
The German will have to pick a new squad number, with Mateo Kovacic taking his old No.8, but that’s a minor detail as City close in one of the signings of the summer.
But what else do the club need to do to complete the window?
Signings Man City still need to make to complete dream transfer window
The return of Gundogan is a massive bonus no one was expecting and if City didn’t make any more signings afterwards then it would still be a successful window.
The last two summers have been hectic with plenty of new arrivals and key departures, so the club was due a relatively quiet year without much upheaval.
Additionally, with the possibility of this being Guardiola’s last season at City, Gundogan being his first and final signing would be quite poetic.
Yet, they could still do with making one new addition. A striker.
Thanks to the emergence of Bobb, before injury at least, Phil Foden wanting to play centrally and James McAtee and Nico O’Reilly knocking on the door, City didn’t need to replace Alvarez as an attacking midfielder.
However, they could do with replacing him as a striker. With the Argentine gone, there is no natural alternative to Erling Haaland should the Norwegian sensation get injured again.
Foden or even Gundogan could play through the middle as false 9s but that would require a complete change of system to work. It’s one City have been successful with in the past but that was some time ago and switching back could lead to problems.
Instead, a natural striker who has qualities but is happy to play a supporting role to Haaland would be the perfect addition.
Celtic’s Kyogo Furuhashi has been linked with City. The versatile Japanese forward has scored 73 goals and laid on 16 assists in 135 games in Scotland.
Though not the most exciting name, Kyogo is exactly the sort of profile City need to fulfil an important, yet periphery, role.
If a striker like Kyogo and Gundogan both sign, then that will have been a dream window for City.
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Pep Guardiola’s new strongest starting XI
Another wonderful thing about Gundogan’s return is that he will take no time to adapt to Guardiola’s playing style or grow familiar with his ‘new’ teammates. It will be like he never left.
Though Kovacic did play well against Chelsea, the German is the superior player and squeezes straight back into City’s strongest XI.
Ederson remains first-choice goalkeeper with a defence of Kyle Walker, Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol ahead of him. Though Rico Lewis and John Stones are pushing hard for a place.
Rodri will obviously join Gundogan in the middle alongside Kevin De Bruyne. That pushes Foden back to the left and sees Bernardo Silva on the right.
Kyogo, or any striker that is signed, isn’t going to dislodge Haaland from the side but it’s another strong option alongside the likes of Bobb, Savinho, Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish.
