Barcelona could sign an Ilkay Gundogan upgrade if they have the guts
Barcelona love their bargain bin signings, and they made one of the more high-profile ones last summer by inking Ilkay Gundogan as a free agent after he helped lead Manchester City to the Champions League and Premier League titles.
Gundogan is one of the best center midfielders of his generation, and he excelled in the 2022/23 season for Man City as an attacking midfielder, standing alongside Kevin De Bruyne in the latest iteration of the Pep Guardiola system.
In his first season with Barcelona, Gundogan was arguably the team’s best and most consistent player, holding together an injury ravaged by injuries with Pedri, Gavi, and Frenkie de Jong missing much of the club’s first season without Sergio Busquets.
Gundogan tallied 5 goals with 9 assists, averaging nearly 3 key passes per game in another vintage season as one of Europe’s finest playmakers, but the workhorse couldn’t help Barcelona advance to the Champions League semifinals or successfully defend their LaLiga title.
Now, there is uncertainty regarding the future of the 33-year-old German international, who tried to bring leadership and winning experience to Barcelona but was visibly upset by the way Xavi and even some of his teammates were all too willing to accept mediocrity.
According to Diario Sport’s Toni Juanmarti, new Barcelona manager – and former German national team coach – Hansi Flick will sit down with Ilkay Gundogan to have a conversation with the veteran midfielder about his future at the club.
It sounds like, based on Juanmarti’s reporting, Barcelona won’t exactly try to convince Gundogan to stay if he is having second thoughts about leaving, because they would be happy to relieve his wages.
Barcelona have a couple of expensive veteran salaries bogging them down, with the other two being center midfielder Frenkie de Jong and striker Robert Lewandowski – but those two, Lewa especially, are difficult to move.
If Gundogan were to leave, Barcelona could negotiate with RB Leipzig for a Dani Olmo transfer after the Spanish international was right there with Barca superstar Lamine Yamal as one of the standout players at Euro 2024.
Olmo has a 60 million release clause, so he is a little pricy for what Barcelona usually go for on the market these days after their previous regime’s economic mismanagement.
However, with other top clubs like Manchester City seemingly balking at Olmo’s asking price, perhaps Barcelona could negotiate the fee down, using Olmo’s status as an academy graduate and familiarity with their playing style as a convincing bargaining chip to get him over the Premier League interest.
There’s a school of thought that Barcelona should not let go of a veteran leader like Gundogan because he knows how to win, but he didn’t exactly help Barcelona win anything.
Leadership and “winning mentality” are more complicated than that. It’s not to say Gundogan isn’t an asset mentally, but who is to say Olmo isn’t?
After all, Olmo made several game-changing plays for Spain at Euro 2024. Without Olmo, Spain certainly would not have won the tournament, because those plays include a goal-line clearance at the death in their Final triumph over England.
It would take guts for Barcelona to let an established superstar like Gundogan, who was their best player last season, to walk away and then spend more money to bring in Olmo.
But since Olmo is 26 and has been arguably better than Gundogan in the year 2024 when weighing his tournament performance, this could be the kind of bold gamble for the future worth Barcelona making, rather than sitting around wasting time on high-wage, short-term veteran signings that don’t help the team like Joao Felix, Joao Cancelo, and even Gundogan and Lewandowski.
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