Manchester City are ready to sign Gianluigi Donnarumma but the goalkeeper's arrival isn't being met with widespread delight
PARIS, FRANCE - JANUARY 22: Erling Haaland of Manchester City and Gianluigi Donnarumma of PSG react during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD7 match between Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City at Parc des Princes on January 22, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by Lionel Hahn/Getty Images)
PARIS, FRANCE - JANUARY 22: Erling Haaland of Manchester City and Gianluigi Donnarumma of PSG react during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD7 match between Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City at Parc des Princes on January 22, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by Lionel Hahn/Getty Images)
Haaland and Donnarumma last season
Gianluigi Donnarumma would be an outlier of a signing for Manchester City. For a club who generally likes to sign the next big thing, Donnarumma is already massive.
He made his debut for AC Milan as a 16-year-old, playing regularly at the San Siro before moving to Paris Saint-Germain and starring in their Champions League triumph last season. He came on for Gianluigi Buffon in 2016 to become the youngest goalkeeper the Italian national team has ever had and played a leading role in Italy beating England in the final of Euro 2020.
Aged just 26, Donnarumma has a glittering CV, his best years ahead of him and is available for less than what City paid for Ederson. So why are so many Blues lukewarm about him coming?
It's all down to Pep Guardiola and what the manager wants from a goalkeeper. Guardiola continues to be clear about the demands he puts on that position, and they do not seem to naturally align with Donnarumma's qualities.
"I think what has evolved most in football since I was a player is the position of the goalkeeper. The training, the trainers, the methodology - how they train the keepers is outstanding," Guardiola told Men in Blazers in August.
"Before the keeper was saving and now they save and have to play. We play with 11 players. There are teams who use it more but it is part of the game.
"It's difficult for me to find one keeper that is not brave with their feet. It is so difficult to find. Now I'm not saying be like Ederson and have the ability to put the ball 60 yards in the pockets.
"He has an incredible ability to do that, and Stefan Ortega has this ability as well. But all of them have to be a minimum to play."
Does Donnarumma have that minimum? Or will it take more changes from Guardiola to be able to accommodate a new profile of goalkeeper?
That remains an unanswered question, but Donnarumma can at least look to Erling Haaland for an example of how to end the debate. The idea of a big No.9 joining Guardiola's pressing machine seemed ludicrous, and even in the months after the striker joined City there was no shortage of pundits saying that Haaland was at the wrong club.
By the end of his first season though, he had won the Treble with City and that was followed a year later by their fourth consecutive Premier League title. There are still arguments over whether City are a better team with Haaland in it, but that amount of silverware is a pretty emphatic response.
That has to be the goal for Donnarumma. Whether or not he is ever seen as a Guardiola goalkeeper, helping the team to win trophies is the strongest way to make a case.
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