While Manchester City’s primary objective will be to challenge for trophies next season, a club of such stature always seems to be looking at the bigger picture.
As a result, the Sky Blues seem to constantly be in the hunt to sign youngsters for the future, with Manchester City set to sign Ethan Fullen, 15 from Newcastle United.
Kaylum Moss could sign for Manchester City from Liverpool as well.
However, when it comes to their first-team, City seem to be working on retaining some of their key assets.
Manchester City should not give Rico Lewis a new contract
Rico Lewis is a player who Manchester City have decided to keep for years to come.
Lewis wishes to stay at Manchester City after being offered a contract extension.
Rico Lewis and Pep Guardiola after Manchester City won the Champions League
Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
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However, for both parties, the decision does not make much sense.
With Matheus Nunes usurping Lewis as the Sky Blues’ starting right-back and considering Manchester City believe they can sign Tino Livramento, the 20-year-old might rarely be given a chance to play in defence.
While Lewis considers himself a midfielder, the arrivals of Nico Gonzalez, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki in recent months coupled with Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva, Rodri and Ilkay Gundogan already being at the club means he will likely be a mere rotational option in the middle of the park.
RICO LEWIS PLAYING TIME AS A MIDFIELDER APPEARANCES
DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER 22
CENTRAL MIDFIELDER 5
ATTACKING MIDFIELDER 1
The youngster is a quality player who has won every possible trophy at club level and even for his personal development, staying at City might derail his career.
While for Manchester City, signing a specialist who could play a more important role than just being a utility player like a potential understudy to Rodri or a top-class right-back makes far more sense than keeping their academy graduate for years to come.
Nico is yet to earn Pep Guardiola’s trust as a holding midfielder anyway and Nunes is a stop-gap option at right-back and as a result, City should prioritise signing seasoned players to give themselves a better shot of dominating English and European football in the near future.
Rico Lewis should be worried about one Manchester City signing
Manchester City boss Guardiola views Lewis as an attacking midfielder but considering they have signed Cherki this summer and Foden has set world-class standards in the past, the player should be concerned about his status in the side in the long run” “Smart, intelligent player.”
“I think his position will be attacking midfielder but for now we have a lot of intelligent players there.
Pep Guardiola concluded: “With him inside, we always had the opportunity to make our process and our game much, much better. Fantastic player, at this early age, he settled really quick and played really good [against BSC Young Boys].”