Manchester City are set to make changes to their squad this summer – and one of the club’s signings from 2022 could be on his way out.
There are a few players in the squad at the moment who haven’t played a great deal of football this term.
Pep Guardiola has voiced his concerns about the workload on the players, but some have questioned him for perhaps not turning to some of the fringe stars in his squad.
Matheus Nunes hasn’t seen a great deal of football in his first term at the Etihad, and obviously, Kalvin Phillips could barely get a look in before he departed to join West Ham United.
But there is one player at City who rarely gets spoken about as a result of playing so little. And that player is Sergio Gomez.
It was recently suggested that Gomez could be used by City as potential makeweight in a deal to sign Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolves.
Manchester City News caught up with HITC journalist and transfer expert Graeme Bailey to find out what might be going down with him this summer…
Sergio Gomez could be moved on this summer, after lack of game time at Manchester City
City landed Sergio Gomez for a relatively modest fee of £11 million in the summer of 2022 from Anderlecht.
No one really anticipated him to break into the starting XI straight away and nail down his place. But many expected a bit more involvement for him than what he’s had.
To date, Gomez has made just 37 appearances for City across all competitions. He has tabled two assists and is yet to score.
Pep’s love of playing centre-backs out wide has really counted against the Spain U21 international, who has mainly been used off the bench and sometimes come on as a winger.
Manchester City News asked transfer expert Graeme Bailey about Gomez and what may happen with him this summer. He said: “I think that’s very much on the agenda (offloading him). I think it’s fair to summise that he wasn’t a Pep signing. He was brought like Kalvin Phillips, Matheus Nunes, that sort of role where they were brought in to make sure the squad wasn’t down to the bare bones.
“I fully expect him to be on his way this summer, for sure. Whether that’s (to be still) part of the City Group or not, I suspect they’ll get first option on him. But I fully expect him to be going.”
It just hasn’t worked out
Gomez has proven to be a pretty underwhelming signing for City, and a rare miss by the recruitment department.
He was signed by the club after Oleksandr Zinchenko had left for Arsenal, but he has never been able to force his way into the starting XI and stay there.
Amazingly, he has never started two games in a row for City and this season, he has managed just 36 minutes in the Premier League so far.
It is a bit of a shame for him, because Pep has preferred to go with Josko Gvardiol, Nathan Ake and sometimes Manuel Akanji on that left side. All of those players are centre-backs by trade, and one wonders what Gomez must think about being behind them in the pecking order.
Clearly though, Pep just hasn’t been seeing enough from him in training and Gomez hasn’t been able to threaten any of the other options. It certainly wouldn’t be a surprise if City did look to move him on this summer and it sounds like this will be the plan from what Bailey has said.
