Man City problem position thrown back into focus as club president 'travels to England' for talks

With all the talk of Ederson, Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva leaving Manchester City this summer, the first exit of the transfer window could be a player who hasn't played anywhere near as much as most of his teammates.

Sergio Gomez only has two Premier League starts to his name following a £14m move from Anderlecht two years ago, both coming after the title was secured in 2022/23 and attention was firmly on winning a treble. He averages just 21 minutes across his 18 league appearances over two seasons, and played just 47 minutes in total in the Premier League last term.

Of his 38 total appearances for City, Gomez has started just 13, and has failed to convince Pep Guardiola that he is of the required quality at left-back. In fact, he appeared more on the wing in his second season than the position he was purchased for.

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The idea was that Gomez would offer a similar skillset to Aleks Zinchenko - an attacker moulded into a full-back - but things haven't quite worked out that way. His substitution at half-time of the disastrous League Cup defeat at Southampton in January 2023 was cheered by the away support at St Mary's, and while he appears a popular member of the dressing room, even Kalvin Phillips played more in the league last season and from fewer appearances.

Josko Gvardiol has gone straight to the top of the left-back hierarchy after signing 12 months ago, while Nathan Ake remains a quality option there. Manu Akanji, Rico Lewis and even Bernardo Silva have been preferred at full-back to Gomez, putting him sixth on