2025 is likely to be the year Manchester City’s squad goes through a major rebuild, work that has already begun.
In January, as outlined by Philip Buckingham of the Athletic, the Sky Blues spent more than the other 19 Premier League clubs combined, splashing £180m to recruit Abdukodir Khusanov, Omar Marmoush, Vitor Reis, Nico González and Juma Bah.
Meantime, Kevin De Bruyne announced last week that he will be leaving the club when his contract expires this summer, having spent a decade at the Etihad, during which time he has, so far, made 414 appearances, scored 106 goals, provided 176 assists and hoisted aloft 16 trophies.
However, could the big-money signing of one of the best players in the Premier League push another Man City legend out the exit door?
Manchester City's interest in Morgan Gibbs-White
As reported by David Ornstein of the Athletic, Manchester City have both Florian Wirtz and Morgan Gibbs-White ‘among the options [they] will consider’ as potential De Bruyne replacements.
Nottingham Forest signed Gibbs-White from Wolves for a reported fee of £42.5m three years ago, and Transfermarkt believe his market value has doubled since then, hence why Lee Clarke of Nottingham Forest News claims he will cost at least £70m.
Meantime, talkSPORT host Max Scott notes that the England international has been “one of the best players in the Premier League” this season, scoring five goals and racking up nine assists – only two midfielders can boast more goal involvements – firing the Garibaldi Reds to the cusp of the Champions League.
So, Gibbs-White would unquestionably be an excellent signing for Man City, but could his potential arrival be bad news for a sky blue stalwart?
After De Bruyne: Why another Man City legend could leave
As well as De Bruyne, six other key members of Manchester City’s first-team squad are now in their 30s, one of whom is Bernardo Silva.
Zak Garner-Purkis of Forbes writes that Silva ‘has been one of the main malfunctioning components’ at Man City this season, adding that his ‘aging legs’ have been a key factor behind the team’s ‘sudden decline’.
Since arriving from Monaco for £43.6m in 2017, the Portuguese international has made 396 appearances for the Citizens, only nine men have made more in club history, hence why Pep Guardiola labelled him “one of the best players I’ve ever seen in my life”.
Nevertheless, Silva’s powers are on the wane, as the table below outlines.
2017/18
53
9
10
2018/19
51
13
13
2019/20
52
8
10
2020/21
45
5
9
2021/22
50
13
7
2022/23
55
7
7
2023/24
49
11
11
2024/25
41
3
4
As the table showcases, this has been, by some distance, Silva’s least productive season at Man City, coming off the back of the 2023/24 campaign, which was actually his best for five years, getting into double figures for both goals and assists.
So now, let’s analyse how he compares to Gibbs-White this season.
Appearances
27
27
Minutes
2,128
2,216
Goals
2
5
Assists
4
9
Goals – xG
-1
+0.8
Shots on target %
33.3%
34%
Chances created
42
42
Shot-creating actions
76
96
Through-balls
3
15
Passing accuracy %
88.89%
81.17%
Take-on success %
53.19%
47.46%
Ball recoveries
80
108
Touches
1,648
1,406
Across the same number of appearances and a near-identical number of minutes, there are just 88 minutes between the pair, it is Gibbs-White who comes out on top for the vast majority of metrics this season.
For the most part, the duo’s statistics are remarkably similar, underlining their stylistic similarities, but it’s the Englishman who boasts better statistics when it comes to goals, assists, chances created, shooting and ball recoveries.
Despite having racked up over 200 more touches, Silva can only claim to have better passing accuracy and take-on success percentage.
All of this emphasises the point that Gibbs-White would be an excellent signing for Man City, representing a clear Silva upgrade.
Instead of signing Wirtz & Gibbs-White: Man City must unleash teenage star
Manchester City have been linked with moves for Florian Wirtz and Morgan Gibbs-White.
1 ByJoe Nuttall