Manchester City is great at securing their talent, so the following one needs to be completed as soon as possible.
Few, if any, football clubs in the world have done a better job recently than Manchester City at securing their future.
The city has a clear financial advantage over all but a small number of clubs, but it is how they have used the immense wealth that has allowed them to distance themselves from almost everyone. not just in hiring but everywhere. No club makes as thorough of plans and anticipates the future as the Blues.
City work on a higher level, whether it’s creating a customized infrastructure to suit Pep Guardiola, building an academy with an incredibly high output of talent, or always taking steps to reenergize the squad before they actually need to. This extends to signing their stars to long-term deals.
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One only needs to take a quick look at City’s roster to realize that there is very little chance that their abilities will diminish any time soon. The club’s top senior players have contracts that extend through 2027 for nine of them, 2026 for four, and 2025 for six more. City typically doesn’t object to a player leaving if the appropriate compensation is offered, but they are free to raise the sums as much as they want. They are guaranteed to be winning multiple trophies each season for the next five years, at the very least, with such a strong and stable team.
The contact list contains one notable error that needs to be fixed as soon as possible: Riley Lewis The teenager’s remarkable meteoric rise to the first team this season shouldn’t go unnoticed. Last season, under his leadership, the Under-18s won the league championship. He made just 10 appearances in the EDS.
Instead, he has pretty much skipped over that rung entirely and made a name for himself on the first squad. He just recently turned 18 years old. He likely overtook Sergio Gomez as the third-choice full-back after his performances in his seven games, as he quickly understood what Guardiola wanted.
You only need to think back to Joao Cancelo’s early struggles at the Etihad to understand how challenging the Blues manager’s demanding job description can be for full-backs. Some newcomers may need more than a year to fully adapt to their demands. Lewis has already completed it.
Lewis put on an impressive performance against Liverpool on Thursday, and Guardiola couldn’t help but praise him. He stated: “I had the impression that we couldn’t play the way we did without him. He played against a really experienced team today, which really impressed me for someone so young.
“It is about intelligence without the ball, not intelligence with the ball. Because he is so smart, so humble, and he grasps everything in a split second, we had the opportunity to almost announce that this man will take a big decade and be an absolutely incredible player for Manchester City in the coming years. We will have a fantastic right full-back with us for the foreseeable future.
“He always performs well, but Nunez, Salah, Thiago, and Robertson are on his side against Liverpool in particular. Aged 18 years old, he. His playing style was superb. He won the game’s MVP award.”
Lewis’s current contract only runs to 2024 but it’s hard to imagine that remaining the case for long. A new deal is likely in the works as these words are typed and a club of City’s foresight will not be letting such a prodigal talent slip through their fingers.
The present hasn’t quite come on Christmas Day but it won’t be long until Lewis gets what must be top of his list.
