The summer of 2025 is likely to be one of significant change at Premier League champions Manchester City.
As things stand, Kevin de Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan will be free-agents. There are serious question marks, too, over the futures of Kyle Walker and Jack Grealish.
Entering their 30s, is this the time where Manchester City – perhaps guilty of resting on their laurels and relying upon a core group of long-serving stars for longer than they really should have – start to think about a succession plan for Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic?
With the 2024/25 campaign feeling like one battle too many for Pep Guardiola’s battle-scarred squad, Man City feel overdue for a rebuild.
TBR understands that Manchester City could replace Kyle Walker with Jeremie Frimpong, an academy graduate now pulling up trees with Bayer Leverkusen. Espanyol’s Omar El Hilali is another on Man City’s wishlist.
Frimpong’s Leverkusen teammate Florian Wirtz and Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala are potential De Bruyne successors, meanwhile.
And, with the burden on Erling Haaland’s shoulders heavier than ever following the sale of Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid, TBR can confirm that Man City are watching PSV Eindhoven striker Ricardo Pepi.
Ayyoub Bouaddi of LOSC Lille during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD5 match between Bologna FC and LOSC Lille at Stadio Renato Dal...
Photo by Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Manchester City move tipped for Lille starlet Ayyoub Bouaddi
Pepi, interestingly, likened himself to Haaland while back home in the USA with FC Dallas.
And with Lille wonderkid Ayyoub Bouaddi generating quite the buzz across the channel – potentially the next rising start to leave LOSC after Leny Yoro – could he become the next to swap the Stade Pierre Mauroy for Manchester?
Yvan Le Mee thinks so.
While not Bouaddi’s agent, Le Mee is a representative very tuned in to the next generation of potential footballing superstars. And he feels that it is only a matter of time before the 17-year-old France Under-21 international is strutting his stuff for one of Europe’s bonafide A-listers.
Caught Offside reports that Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea are all interested. A race Man City could yet join in the near future.
“He’s a 17-year-old phenomenon,” Le Mee tells Sport Italia. “He is very strong.
“I think he’s already excluded from [moving to] Italy for economic reasons, for the simple fact that I imagine teams like Real Madrid, Manchester City or Bayern Munich will arrive. In my opinion, he will leave for figures of 60 million euros [£50 million] and up.”
“I’m not his agent but, as I was saying, in my opinion he’s already out of the market for Italian teams.”
Likened to Raphael Varane but similar to Rodri
Bouaddi, like Yoro, is already a regular in the Lille team at the age of just 17.
The teenager has made 11 Ligue 1 appearances already in 2024/25, impressing with his awareness and composure in the sort of deep-lying role Ballon D’Or winner Rodri has made his own at the Etihad Stadium.
Bouaddi’s average of two successful tackles per game is almost identical to the numbers Rodri put up in the Premier League last term.
Some have suggested, meanwhile, that Bouaddi may be Lille’s most impressive homegrown talent since the great Eden Hazard.
“Tall, at ease in midfield, with great technique and an eye for the game,” Georges Tournay, who coached Bouaddi in his younger days, tells L’Equipe while drawing comparisons with a certain one-time RC Lens wonderkid.
“He was destined for success, a bit like Raphael Varane.”
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