Man City must consider cutting their losses on signing before it's too late

Manchester City are likely to have to wait until August before finalising a move for Kalvin Phillips this summer, and all parties hope a permanent solution can be found to end his Etihad exile.

The 29-year-old is being linked with a return to Leeds United. His three-year stay in Manchester after leaving Elland Road has been disastrous. Signed for £42million in 2022, City will be lucky to recoup a quarter of that now.

Injuries blighted his first season at the club, and he didn't start in the Premier League until the final day of that season, by which point it already felt clear that the player simply didn't fit this system.

In hindsight, it would have made sense for City and Phillips to cut their losses in 2023. At that point, he was still an England international, and there would have been a strong market for him. Now, his stock has plummeted and loan spells at West Ham and Ipswich have failed to reignite a spark.

Maybe City will have that in their minds when they consider what to do with Nico Gonzalez this summer. The 23-year-old, signed from Porto for £50million in January, has had a tricky start to his own career at the club.

It's certainly not been at the level of Phillips' beginnings, and Gonzalez was being hailed as a 'mini Rodri' by Pep Guardiola back in February. But City spent £46.3million on Tijjani Reijnders last month and Gonzalez is no longer guaranteed a place in the side.

He was a substitute for five of the final eight Premier League games of the season and didn't even come on in three of those fixtures. At the Club World Cup, he played 61 minutes against Al Ain, but didn't come off the bench against Wydad AC, Juventus or Al Hilal, which feels pretty telling about his current status.

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