Will Ilkay Gundogan Sign a New Manchester City Contract?

When Pep Guardiola joined Manchester City he made Ilkay Gundogan his very first signing having been impressed by the player’s performances at Borussia Dortmund when he was in Germany.

It is surprising to realise Ilkay Gundogan joined Manchester City on 1 July 2016 having signed for a fee of around £27 million. In today’s current market that seems like an astonishingly low fee for an experienced top level International player. It also seems like a long time ago and given he only signed a 4 year deal, this all means he will soon be entering the last year of his contract. As it stands his Manchester City contract is due to expire on 30 June 2020.

Gundogan has had a series of unfortunate injury problems throughout his time as a professional footballer and it was a serious injury which disrupted his first season with City. However he has fought well to recover his form and is currently a valuable member of the first team squad. He is a versatile midfielder capable of covering Attacking Midfield, Central Midfield and Defensive Midfield roles. Indeed it is his goal scoring ability which has made him stand out on occasion in a blue shirt -think about his 2 goal performance against Barcelona!

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This versatility which when coupled with his tactical understanding has often made him a mainstay of the Guardiola side. Currently he is enjoying a run in the team as cover for Fernandinho. Whilst I do not always think this is his best position he has undertaken it so far with aplomb.

Guardiola first raised the issue of the Gundogan contract situation in a press conference a couple of weeks ago when he said there were talks ongoing. However last week Guardiola seemed to have changed his approach and hinted there may be an issue, suggesting that if Gundogan wanted to stay he would have signed the contract which has been offered.

Clearly City have an accomplished strategy of securing all important players to longer term deals and it would appear they have worked hard to tie up Gundogan too. However reading between the lines there would appear to be some frustration being echoed by Guardiola. Indeed it has reached the point in the press where Gundogan is having to respond to questions in his after match interviews. So far Gundogan has been somewhat cryptic in his response, offering vague comments about wanting to take his time with a decision because of his age.

There will be no shortage of suitors for his services in the coming months and it may well be that he has decided to see what comes his way. However it will be interesting to see what attitude City may have to this. Will they let him run down his contract and leave on a free transfer in 2020 or will they seek to achieve a substantial transfer fee? If that is the plan then they will have to sell him this summer to maximise the value.

For Gundogan whilst leaving his contract to run down would return maximum benefit to him in terms of a lucrative signing on fee and wages there is an inherent risk in such an approach given his injury record in recent seasons. Will Gundogan be prepared to carry this risk as the contract runs down?

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All in all this could be an interesting few months in the career of Gundogan and may well further shape Manchester City’s plans in the summer transfer market.

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