Nico Gonzalez has become the latest Manchester City midfielder to commit his future to the club. The Spaniard has had a difficult first 18 months at City and last season went from the most valuable player for Pep Guardiola in the first half of the campaign to somebody who was barely used in the final months.
That opened doubts over his future as City look to refresh their midfield given the departure of Bernardo Silva and the possible exit of Rodri. With Enzo Maresca taking charge, Gonzalez was one of a number of players whose place in the squad for this season was not secure.
However, the former Porto player has followed Mateo Kovacic in declaring his intention to stay while on the summer tour. Speaking after the 3-1 win over K-League All Stars, he told reporters that he is happy to be a member of the group even if he doesn’t play every match.
“I’m happy here. I don’t want to leave and I think the club wants me to stay. I haven’t seen anything but I’m happy here,” he said. “I don’t think any player has the position guaranteed for all the matches. Everyone has to work hard.
“We are one of the best teams in the world and obviously there is competition in every position. That is what makes us be in the position that we are, winning so many Premier Leagues and competing for everything.
“I try not to focus on if I play or not. I try to focus on working well and being ready when I have to play. To be honest, last season I couldn’t have expected to have played almost 30 matches in the starting XI. I played really good and I am happy here. I’m happy because I’ve had many opportunities.”
If Gonzalez and Kovacic are expected to stay, Tijjani Reijnders is likely to move on after just a year at the club. The Dutch international was signed from AC Milan for an initial £46.3m but has strong interest from Nottingham Forest, and Newcastle and Galatasaray have also shown an interest.
As reported in the Manchester Evening News, talks are progressing to sign Lille’s Ayyoub Bouaddi and he will be brought in regardless of outgoings. Additionally, there will be replacements for either or both of Reijnders and Rodri, with the latter wanted by Barcelona now as well as Real Madrid.
That policy applies to other departures as well, so if Savinho heads to Tottenham then somebody new will be signed to take his spot in the squad. It isn’t clear yet that this will definitely be a winger, with Maresca and sporting director Hugo Viana flexible over their attack.
And with James Trafford set to complete a move to Leeds, Marseille’s Geronimo Rulli is in City’s sights for the second time in his career. He is lined up to become Gianluigi Donnarumma’s No.2, with Marcus Bettinelli staying as the third keeper.
Plans to sign a right-back have also been shelved. City were only ever looking for a back-up to Matheus Nunes, having deemed Malo Gusto too expensive for the £75m Chelsea wanted for Maresca to reunite with his former player.
Abdukodir Khusanov is capable of playing at right-back and Vitor Reis also played there for part of the friendly with K-League All Stars. Reis is expected to stay with the first team squad this season, with the right-back role offering him another route to minutes.
Having moved early to sign Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi in the January transfer window, City are confident that they can back those signings up in August to give Maresca the best possible chance of a successful first season at the Etihad.
And while contract news does not excite certain fans in the same way as transfer fans, Jeremy Doku has signed his new deal – taking him to at least 2031 – to follow in the footsteps of Phil Foden, Josko Gvardiol and Khusanov in the last few weeks; confirmation is expected next week when he returns from his holiday.
