Rayan Ait-Nouri's Manchester City career hasn't panned out the way he would have hoped, and looks to be heading in only one direction. How can the Algerian prove his worth to Enzo Maresca and kickstart his time in blue?
What does the 2026/27 season have in store for Rayan Ait-Nouri?
More Videos
Manchester City have rotated over their last two games against Ipswich Town and AEK Athens, with the likes of out-of-favour Mateo Kovacic, as well as fringe player Rico Lewis, and academy graduate Floyd Samba all earning starts.
Signs aren’t promising, then, for Rayan Ait-Nouri - a summer signing from just last year who has only been trusted for 20 minutes from the substitutes' bench in the recent UEFA Champions League match against the Greek side, by which point the game had already been won.
That was just Ait-Nouri’s third appearance of the season, with his sole start coming against Norwich City in the Carabao Cup, and he is yet to feature in a Premier League game, and did not even make matchday squads for trips to Manchester United and Liverpool.
It is fair to say that the Algerian looks like he has one foot out of the Etihad Stadium already – but this wouldn’t be the first time that a City player has come back from the brink to reinvigorate a stagnant career in blue.
In City Xtra’s latest feature, we explore potential avenues for Rayan Ait-Nouri to come good in East Manchester.
The story behind Ait-Nouri's arrival
Given the way the last year has gone, fans could be forgiven for forgetting that Rayan Ait-Nouri’s arrival from Wolverhampton Wanderers last June came with no little amount of fanfare and expectation.
For as much as Josko Gvardiol had just been named Manchester City’s 2024/25 Player of the Year and Nico O’Reilly had shown glimpses of his potential in the last few months of that season, Ait-Nouri was the club’s first out-and-out left-back signing since Angelino in 2019, and the first probably expected to be first-choice since Benjamin Mendy in 2017.
And it’s not revisionism to suggest the 25-year-old was intended to come straight into the Blues’ strongest side, having impressed at times during the FIFA Club World Cup of summer 2025, starting three of City’s four games, before also lining up for the first three Premier League games of 2025/26.
An ankle injury knocked the former French youth international out from the beginning of September until the end of October, but it was when he returned to the side that his selection issues truly began.
The Nico O'Reilly effect on Rayan Ait-Nouri
In that near two-month layoff, Nico O’Reilly had announced himself to the footballing world, sewing up the left-back berth with some sensational performances, and laying the groundwork for a season which would see him named both Manchester City’s Player of the Year and the PFA Young Player of the Year.
With O’Reilly still on the scene now, and Josko Gvardiol seemingly preferred at left-back than through the middle by new manager Enzo Maresca, Rayan Ait-Nouri’s job to get back into the team looks like an arduous one – but not impossible.
He already managed to win round Pep Guardiola, after all. The former Angers man was essentially frozen out for the entire second half of 2025, but an injury crisis at the start of this year meant Nico O’Reilly had to revert to his natural home in midfield, and Ait-Nouri seized the opening at left-back.
From 20th January to 17th March, Rayan Ait-Nouri started 12 of Manchester City’s 15 matches in all competitions - a run which only ended with O’Reilly’s bombshell Carabao Cup final brace against Arsenal back on the left of the defence.
Ait-Nouri was admittedly a rotation option again for the last few months of the season, but that prior spell was proof of what can happen when a player grabs his chance.
Pep Guardiola wouldn’t just hand a string of starts to a player he didn’t consider worthy of it either, so just because he ended up usurped by an on-fire Nico O’Reilly, doesn’t mean Rayan Ait-Nouri should be written off as a Manchester City player or considered ‘blacklisted’ by the greatest manager of all time.
And if he earn the trust of Guardiola, he can do the same with Enzo Maresca.
Is there hope for Ait-Nouri under Enzo Maresca?
The Italian revealed earlier this term that he sees Rayan Ait-Nouri 'more as a winger than a full-back’, and has been true to his word, using the Algerian in attack from the start against Norwich City and off the bench against FC Porto and AEK Athens – receiving three assists from his charge in those three appearances.
End product is far from his problem either, and hasn’t been since his days rampaging down the flank as a tricky, attack-minded wing-back at Wolves. Other offensive highlights in blue include a mazy run to assist Rayan Cherki in the Carabao Cup semi-final at Newcastle, setting up Antoine Semenyo’s winner at Leeds, and two well-taken goals in pre-season against the K-League All Stars and Atletico Madrid.
One man’s loss is another man’s gain, and there will be several players in the Manchester City squad viewing Semenyo’s recent injury as an opportunity to cement themselves in one of the attacking slots – leaving the small matter of bypassing names like Jeremy Doku, Phil Foden, and Iliman Ndiaye.
With illustrious talent like that on the wings, it would be fanciful to suggest that Rayan Ait-Nouri is in a strong starting position to win Enzo Maresca round. However, the new boss is liable to present opportunities to impress, especially to somebody more than capable of playing as the direct, aggressive wideman his manager leans towards.
Opportunities on the immediate horizon for Ait-Nouri?
The last few days have proven that Enzo Maresca is more willing to shake up his side in the interest of minute management than the sometimes bullish Pep Guardiola – who once famously and explicitly told his players what he thought of them complaining about being tired – but it may require patience on the part of Rayan Ait-Nouri.
The Carabao Cup fourth round tie with Brighton & Hove Albion could prove a chance to impress, but UEFA Champions League games against RB Leipzig, Napoli, and Barcelona before the turn of the year look unforgiving.
RC Lens and Sporting CP await to round off Manchester City’s league phase fixtures in late January, but by then the transfer window will be open, and if Rayan Ait-Nouri’s situation hasn’t changed as we enter 2027, he might not even still be on the books by then.
So, it looks like being a case of knuckling down, taking any chance that is presented and not relenting in his efforts to prove what he can do for Rayan Ait-Nouri. We will admit that the likeliest course of action will probably see the Algerian exit Manchester City sometime in the new year, but stranger things have happened. Just ask Matheus Nunes.