Manchester City’s Claudio Bravo To Leave Next Summer

There have been recent stories in the UK Press about Claudio Bravo, Manchester City’s reserve goalkeeper highlighting how he will leave at the end of his current contract. Unlike the journalists though we don’t think there is anything strange about this.

When Manchester City signed Bravo on August 25 2016 it was for the sum of £16 million. At the time Guardiola was frantically looking for a keeper capable of playing out from the back in order to establish his preferred style of playing. But things did not go according to plan.

Whether it was the change in country, the climate or the defenders in front of him, Bravo found himself frequently exposed and quickly became the fall guy of what the media believed was Guardiola’s fallacy. Why should Guardiola believe he could come to the greatest League in the World and play a different way?

City invested in Ederson and Bravo found himself as a reserve keeper, although it was injury which reduced his appearances rather than ability. In fact, Bravo has delivered some memorable performances for Manchester City since returning to full fitness.

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Bravo is currently 36 years old and entering the twilight phase of his career where maybe he has limited opportunities for playing. It is no surprise therefore to hear he intends to see out his current contract which expires next Summer and move on, probably back to La Liga. Who wouldn’t want to see out their retirement in sunnier climes?

The reality is City are unlikely to offer to extend his contract. Bravo will be 37 next April and frankly it will be a surprise if he remains at City all of this season. Surely if a playing contract arrives with a couple of years he will be seeking to move on.

The reality is that City have a number of players with contracts expiring on 30 June 2020:

Fernandinho

David Silva

Claudio Bravo

Aleix Garcia

Yet, so much of the focus of Manchester City’s transfer business under Txiki Begiristain has been to tie down the core of our team to long term deals. Players who are approaching the end of their playing time are seldom offered new deals and are allowed to leave City. This has been the case in recent seasons with Pablo Zabaleta, Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany.

The expiry of these big money contracts will of course free up additional wage budget should their be any new signings on the horizon. At the very least it should make Financial Fair Play regulations even easier to comply with!

It is worth noting that City additionally have the following contracts ending in 2021:

Sergio Aguero

Leroy Sane

So it is fair to say we are entering the end of Phase 1 of the Manchester City project since the takeover by our owner Sheikh Mansour some 10 years ago.

For the sake of accuracy it is also worth reporting a number of the higher profile players in the City EDS side also have contracts expiring next Summer 2020:

Ivan Poveda

Joel Latibeaudiere

Iker Pozo

Benjamin Garre

Jeremie Frimpong

This would suggest that there are talks going on at the moment behind the scenes to try and nail down these players to new extended contracts. However, with each passing year this becomes a more difficult task as players are increasingly searching for an easy path to stardom.

As it stands there are a number of important players departing Manchester City this Summer. Let us hope they can leave on a high with some more trophies!