Of all teams across Europe, Manchester City appear set to be busier than anybody else in this January transfer window.
The Sky Blues are on the verge of three big-money editions this month, with Vitor Reis, Abdukodir Khusanov and Omar Marmoush all now looking likely to arrive.
The rebuild is firmly underway in East Manchester, but could one of the Sky Blues’ longest-serving, most-experienced players fall by the wayside during this window?
Possible departures this month from Manchester City
Rumours have been rife this winter linking Kevin De Bruyne with the exit door. Out of contact at the end of the season, he has fielded interest from overseas, notably in the form of San Diego FC.
While the attacking midfielder’s game time has dwindled in recent campaigns, he’s still been a wonderful servant to the Etihad side and it would be gutting for the fans to lose him.
That being said, the same surely cannot be said of another long-serving face in Manchester.
Following Saturday’s 8-0 FA Cup demolition of Salford City, Pep Guardiola revealed to the assembled journalists that club captain and £50m signing Kyle Walker had asked to leave the club this month, adding Walker wishes to explore options abroad.
The following day, Mike McGrath of the Telegraph reported that AC Milan are close to ‘finalising’ a move for Walker, offering him a two-and-a-half year contract, after a meeting with Zlatan Ibrahimović, who’s now an advisor for I Rossoneri.
Andrea Ramazzotti of Gazzetta dello Sport claims joining Milan is ‘top of Walker’s list of priorities’, with Man City willing to allow him to leave for free as ‘recognition after an incredible career’ with the club, albeit this would get his reported annual salary in excess of £8m of the wage bill.
talkSPORT believes that Walker has turned down a £400,000-a-week offer from an unnamed Saudi Pro League club, with his preference to stay in Europe, now looking likely to be donning a famous black and red striped jersey at San Siro in the coming weeks.
Back in July 2023, Guardiola labeled Walker as “irreplaceable” amid interest from Bayern Munich, with the manager revealing at the weekend his star right-back was pushing for a move to Bavaria back then, but the Bundesliga champions’ offer was ‘not good enough’.
Why now is the right time to axe Kyle Walker
It’s easy to see why Walker is valued so highly, considering he’s made 319 appearances for the Citizens, winning 17 major trophies, including six Premier League titles and the Champions League.
In Guardiola’s coaching career meantime, only Bernardo Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Ederson and İlkay Gündoğan have featured on more occasions for him than Walker; for context, he’s deployed the English right-back exactly 100 more times than he ever did Lionel Messi.
As noted by Jonathan Liew for the Guardian, Walker has endured a ‘sharp decline in his recovery pace’ this season, while Michael Cox of the Athletic adds that Man City had been ‘overly reliant on his recovery pace’, a quality that has naturally ‘faded’, given that Walker is now 34-years-old.
The most glaring example of this came during Tottenham’s 4-0 demolition at the Etihad in late November, with Timo Werner easing past the full-back to put the ball on a plate for Brennan Johnson to rubber-stamp the victory.
Thus, now might not be the worst time to part ways with Walker, but how does he compare to Man City’s incoming defenders Reis and Khusanov?
Appearances
21
20
14
Minutes
1,404
1,638
1,064
Pass completion %
87.6%
88%
88.1%
Tackles
19
34
15
Tackle success %
53.8%
71.9%
63.6%
Blocks
13
14
17
Interceptions
4
16
29
Clearances
13
85
57
Errors leading to a shot
1
0
0
% of aerial duals won
58.8%
63.6%
69.2%
Walker’s numbers this season do not make for good reading.
His tackle success % means almost half of the time the opposing winger is getting beyond him, while Walker has also won little over half of his aerial duals, and is the only member of the trio to make an error resulting in the opposition having a shot at goal.
In contrast, only 20 players across Europe’s “top five” leagues have made more interceptions than Khusanov so far this season, while Reis ranks in the 82nd percentile for aerial duals won, a very impressive figure for an 18-year-old, described by Joseph Lowery of Total Soccer Show as an “absolute monster in the air”.
Of course, neither Reis nor Khusanov are out-and-out right-backs, meaning Guardiola may be forced to rejig his back-line, albeit he does have Rico Lewis at his disposal, but with two high-quality defenders on their way to the Etihad, Man City can afford to let their captain depart.
After Walker: Pep must now sell Man City star who earns more than Haaland
Manchester City should move on the midfielder before his contract expires in the summer.
ByDan EmeryJan 14, 2025