The former Germany international's second spell in England has been a big disappointment, and Pep Guardiola needs to politely tell him his time is up
The easiest choice a manager has to make is deciding to get rid of a player he doesn't like – and Pep Guardiola has done it on multiple occasions. There have been players who he quickly realised were not good enough for his team, such as Kalvin Phillips and Ferran Torres, who lasted less than 18 months at Manchester City. Then there have been players whose talent and quality were not in doubt, but whose attitude meant they were impossible for him to work with, such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic when he was at Barcelona or Joao Cancelo at City.
The hardest thing for a manager is to know when to cut loose a club legend. Sir Alex Ferguson was one of the best at identifying when the time was right to part with a player and he learned early on to take the emotion out of the decision.
"I had to remember that I was manager of Manchester United, not their father and I had to go and tell them their time had come," he told the World Business Forum in 2016. "Some people might say it is ruthless, but it is about loyalty to the club. I am their manager, employed by them, and it is up to me to make sure Manchester United remains the best team."
Guardiola is less adept at moving on players he is fond of and he recently admitted that particular weakness had been detrimental to his City team this season. The coach revealed in January that he had turned down the opportunity to bolster his squad last summer out of loyalty to the core players who had won City a record-breaking fourth Premier League title, but he soon came to regret that call after his team was decimated with injuries.
"In the summer, the club thought about it and I said 'no, I don't want to make any signings," he said. "I relied a lot on these guys and thought I can do it again. But after the injuries – wow – maybe we should have done it."
Guardiola finally discovered his more ruthless side earlier this month when he told Kevin De Bruyne he did not want him to remain at the club beyond his contract expiring. And now he has a similar decision to make with another club legend who has passed his peak: Ilkay Gundogan.
GettyAwkward contract extension
De Bruyne was the star of the show as City roared back from two goals down to hammer Crystal Palace 5-2 on Saturday, and his performance allowed Guardiola another opportunity to give the Belgian his flowers, having disappointed against Manchester United in the first game since announcing he was leaving the club. Gundogan also impressed against Palace, and Guardiola praised his display after the game while also revealing that the German had prolonged his contract with the club by exceeding the required number of minutes to trigger a one-year extension.
But the automatic extension does not make things easier for Guardiola when it comes to planning his squad for next season. The coach was fortunate that De Bruyne was about to reach the end of his deal at the Etihad Stadium and the only way for him to stay would be for both parties to negotiate a new deal. The ball was effectively in City's court, and both Guardiola and sporting director Txiki Begiristain made the emotionally difficult yet understandable decision to move De Bruyne on.
But now Gundogan, who returned to City last summer just one year after leaving the club to join Barcelona, holds the cards. If he wants to he can remain at the club until 2026, and there's not much City can do about it. That was not expected to be an issue last year when City signed him just before the August transfer deadline, recouping one of their modern greats little more than 12 months after he led them to the treble. But the automatic extension puts City in an awkward situation because Gundogan is not the same player who was pivotal to that success and many before it during the Guardiola era.
AdvertisementGetty No longer elite
Gundogan has played 43 out of City's 48 matches in all competitions this season, and has the seventh-highest number of minutes of the squad in the Premier League and the 10th-highest in the Champions League. That is far more than City expected out of him to due to the team's injury problems, and on several occasions he had to deputise as the team's sole holding midfielder, a role he was never comfortable playing at his pomp, never mind at the age of 34.
Gundogan has looked out of his depth in many games this season and he was one of the worst performers during City's abysmal run of form between November and December, starting every game bar one when they lost nine out of 12 matches while only winning once. Guardiola effectively admitted that he had rarely seen peak Gundogan in his second spell as he reeled off his best displays of the season in what was a short list of matches against sides outside of the 'Big Six'.
"The Gundo from Leicester, the Gundo from Bournemouth, the Gundo from [Palace] is the Gundo I remember," he said. "When we won the treble he was so important. His activity, space, his defensive intelligence, when he arrives. Gundo has been with us massively. But as a team, we could not help him. It is not about ‘you, you, you’. Everyone was down. Everyone was below because the team was not playing good. When the team plays good, the player arrives. Without that, in modern football, you cannot do it."
Getty Reliable players required
Guardiola might not have been blaming Gundogan for City's drop-off, but nor did he stress that the ex-Borussia Dortmund man was part of he solution. And that was why the Catalan cast doubt on Gundogan's future even as he confirmed that he had renewed his contract, saying: "He has one more year contract, definitely. What’s going to happen (in the summer), I don’t know, but he has one more year contract now."
The coach's next answer, although not specifically about Gundogan, also hinted that he believes it would be in City's best interest if Gundogan did not fulfil his recently extended contract. Asked whether the club needed to sign a left-back in the summer, Guardiola had a pop at the players who have been haunted by injuries this season, such as Nathan Ake and John Stones.
"The most important thing from my point of view, as I said to the club, is which players are reliable for the future," he said. "You cannot perform if you aren't reliable and you are injured. The players we have, they can either play every three days or they cannot. We need to build a squad for next season."
GettyDelivering when it mattered
Gundogan cannot be criticised for his injury record as he has been one of the few players in the City squad to demonstrate his durability. He hasn't, however, been able to keep up with the pace of the modern Premier League and cannot be expected to play twice a week next season, especially as he turns 35 in October.
City, at least in their modern era since the Abu Dhabi-led takeover, are not used to suffering like they did this season, and nor is Guardiola. Neither club nor coach will tolerate a repeat next season and it is highly likely that the squad rebuild, which began in January with four new signings, will accelerate in the summer. It is hard, then, to see how Gundogan fits into the profile they are looking for.
The German's contribution to City's success over the last decade has not quite been as great as De Bruyne's, but he has also produced at the highest level when it has mattered most. It should not be forgotten that he was the club's leading scorer in the 2020-21 campaign, or that it was Gundogan who rescued their title bid on the final day of the 2021-22 season by scoring in quick succession in the comeback win over Aston Villa.
