UEFA rule might force Man City hand in Nico Gonzalez transfer decision
Pep Guardiola has made it clear he wants the size of his Manchester City squad reduced this summer. There are practical reasons for selling this window, as well as his desire to work with a smaller group of players.Kyle Walker moved to Burnley last weekend and Kalvin Phillips, James McAtee and Jack Grealish could all follow the veteran right-back out of the exit door. But that only solves one problem for City.While selling those four players does reduce Guardiola's squad size, all of them are classed as homegrown players for squad rules laid out by the Premier League and UEFA, and that presents the Blues with a problem.It is those UEFA rules that are more stringent. Eight of the 25-man squad must have been trained within English football for three full seasons between the ages of 15 and 21, with four of those eight spending those three seasons at City.That essentially means only 17 spots in the squad can go to 'foreign' players, which is an issue for Guardiola, because he currently has 21 players who fit into that category. Having spoken so openly about how he hates leaving players out of a squad, having to tell four of them that they won't be involved in the Champions League would be a nightmare scenario.Of those 21 players, a couple of them could yet depart on loan in the cases of teenagers Vitor Reis and Claudio Echeverri, although both had encouraging moments during the Club World Cup. Brazilian centre-back Reis faces a lot of competition in defence, and Argentine Echeverri picked up an injury that ended his tournament early.That still leaves 19 players, all of who would be considered first-team options. Leaving any of them out of a squad for eight games in the Champions League league phase would be far from ideal.Taking away Reis and Echeverri, the full list is Ederson, Stefan Ortega, Ruben Dias, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Josko Gvardiol, Manuel Akanji, Tijjani Reijnders, Jeremy Doku, Nico Gonzalez, Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Savinho, Matheus Nunes, Rayan Cherki, Omar Marmoush, and Erling Haaland.There aren't two players in that list that Guardiola would feel comfortable leaving out, which is why more departures are likely. Gundogan has been linked with an exit, but it's also why speculation about City being open to selling Gonzalez after just six months at the club might well have legs.Even if the Spaniard doesn't top the list of potential sales, he is no longer first-choice and with the competition for places in midfield, it feels like at least one central midfielder has to go.Gonzalez's stock has fallen since Guardiola called him a 'mini Rodri' in February, and the signing of Reijnders has dropped him further down the pecking order. City spent £50million to sign him from Porto, but he probably retains a lot of that value and is still only 23.On the face of it, selling him already might look like City admitting they got that one wrong, but needs must this summer and if the interest is there, it might yet be a deal that makes a lot of sense.---Here at the Manchester Evening News, we’re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester City coverage and analysis.Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe.You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.
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