Nico Gonzalez has been a hot topic for Manchester City this week and his situation speaks to wider questions at the club
Nico Gonzalez and Pep Guardiola
Manchester City find themselves in a position they aren't used to heading into the 2025/26 season.
For a start, they aren't champions. You have to go back all the way to 2020 for the last time they weren't defending a Premier League crown, and it isn't just Liverpool but also Arsenal that have been backed early by punters to be better in this campaign.
City acted quickly and decisively this year when their problems became apparent, splashing out £175m in January - a market they never usually operate in and don't like to do so - to galvanise Pep Guardiola's team and secure Champions League football, and then a further £109m to bring in another four faces before the Club World Cup.
The influence of new sporting director Hugo Viana has already been seen and represents another new era to go with the squad rebuild, but this has also brought uncertainty to the squad. A last-16 exit to Saudi side Al Hilal at the Club World Cup undid the positivity that the Blues were generating in the United States and fuels the doubts heading into the year.
A lot of the big questions around City can be seen through the prism of £50m buy Nico Gonzalez. The midfielder was signed at the beginning of the year by the Blues as they belatedly brought in cover for the injured Rodri, and had Guardiola publicly purring over him after a terrific display at home to Newcastle.
The 23-year-old looked like he was going to become a mainstay into the team, only to start just one of the last seven matches and sit out three of four matches at the Club World Cup. With summer buy Tijjani Reijnders leapfrogging him into the team and Rodri returning, there have been questions over Gonzalez's future at the club after just six months.
City expect to keep him, but at the same time he is not as untouchable as fellow January buy Omar Marmoush. If he wants to force a move, there is a number that the club will accept as they tell any player.
Were he to do so, he would not likely be missed given he has barely made an impact at the Etihad. But it would speak to a number of issues that are concerning fans.
If City are happy to let a £50m midfielder leave after six months when he was meant to be the start of the rebuild of the squad, it does not say much for the rebuild. Or the recruitment that signed him in the first place.
City's purchases have come under increasing scrutiny over the past three years, with the jury still out on Jeremy Doku, Savinho and Mateo Kovacic while Gonzalez is the latest midfielder to underwhelm after the disastrous signing of Kalvin Phillips. Getting Rodri cover was always going to be difficult, but City have toiled.
Guardiola can be the biggest genius in the game but if recruitment is poor there is a limit to what can be done on the pitch, and getting rid of Gonzalez would place question marks among his fellow January arrivals. Abdukodir Khusanov had a similarly bright start before disappearing from starting lineups, Vitor Reis has been used even more scarcely and Omar Marmoush - the best of the bunch - has fresh competition from the summer buys.
Gonzalez going would also add to the concerns some have for Guardiola and his use of midfielders. The former Porto man would essentially be going having failed to dislodge Kovacic, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan from the team.
They, along with Kevin De Bruyne, came to be known as the 'uncs' last season - experienced players trusted by Guardiola to get the team out of their hole even though they appeared to have been culpable in putting them there. Gundogan and Silva in particular were seemingly undroppable during the worst run of form in the winter despite their struggles being apparent.
As the race for Champions League qualification grew tighter in the final months of the campaign, Gonzalez was ditched and the manager stuck with experience in the middle instead. It worked, but at what cost?
Kovacic underwent surgery at the beginning of summer that has ruled him out of pre-season, but also quietened talk of a potential exit. Silva has been made captain, while Gundogan has expressed a desire to stay many times despite the club signing his eventual successor in Tijjani Reijnders.
There has been genuine excitement from supporters at the arrival of Reijnders, Rayan Cherki and Rayan Ait-Nouri (a left-back, no less!) yet their impact may be limited if the old guard continue to get as many opportunities. Guardiola blocked a new era last summer and has the potential to put the brakes on it through his team selections even after eight new signings.
The manager is still backed to know what is best because of everything he has done for the club, and because of how committed he remains. He defied expectations last autumn to sign another new deal and lead the next phase of the team when it was all beginning to feel like a Last Dance, and a refreshing of the backroom staff offers intrigue with the arrival of Jurgen Klopp's former No.2 Pep Lijnders.
However, with Silva captain there is very much a feel of City being the old masters determined to prove they still have what it takes. There is no shortage of golden oldies in sport to remind that this can be a winning formula, but for every Novak Djokovic there is a Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner chipping away at them.
In many ways, the motivation is the same for the City squad: prove people wrong by competing for as many trophies as possible again. The difference, after the last 12 months, is that there are more doubters and that has crept into a fanbase who used to be able to know exactly what sort of performance the team was going to deliver every week.
There is a feeling of an era ending at City, with the Premier League trophy at Anfield and Kevin De Bruyne taking to a new pitch in Napoli. The bigger question, which Gonzalez is a useful lightning rod for, is whether it is also the end of an empire.
That is what their rivals will be hoping for, and that is what City have to systematically shut down over the course of this season. Whether it is from new recruits, recent signings looking to secure their place in the team, or long-serving players showing they still bring value, there should be plenty of motivation in a squad that grew sick of the criticism they faced last season.
In their best-case scenario, Gonzalez will be at the heart of their successful season - but the stakes have rarely been higher under Guardiola.