- 06/08/2023
Ilkay Gundogan has signed for Barcelona following the expiry of his contract with Man City. But according to reports this transfer also includes the possibility he could make a shock return to Manchester before the start of the new season.
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00:00 Ilkay Gundogan has today joined Barcelona, that is a fact, it is a thing.
00:08 Hello there everybody, Adam Cleary from 442 here and if you're a Manchester City fan
00:12 sitting at home right now wondering why on earth your club has just allowed its captain
00:17 coming off the back of what has probably been his best ever season for them to just leave
00:20 for nothing, then well, I am here to tell you that it might not be as black and white
00:26 as that.
00:27 There is a big clause in his contract, there is a possibility and a surprisingly plausible
00:32 one at that, that come the start of the new season he might be a Manchester City player
00:38 again.
00:39 Yep.
00:40 Alright, so just to lay something out very, very quickly, he has definitely 100% signed
00:46 for Barcelona, he's got the shirt, that's done, it's happened.
00:50 But the thing is, while signing a player is all well and good, there are several other
00:53 steps required before they can actually play for your team and given Barcelona's recent
00:58 track record with a number of these steps, it still feels like there's actually quite
01:02 a long way to go.
01:03 The context for this story though is that fundamentally Gundogan didn't really want
01:08 to leave Man City.
01:09 Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he's delighted to have joined Barcelona, he was going to
01:11 give everything to that project, it's a great move for him, but given his options, it was
01:16 probably his second choice.
01:17 Earlier in the season, say about like February, March sort of time, City were cruising towards
01:22 this travel and at the very heart of it was, yeah, you're De Bruyne, you're Haaland, but
01:25 Gundogan was playing fantastically.
01:27 As a result, and under the direct instruction of Pep Guardiola himself, Manchester City
01:31 club officials approached Gundogan's representatives and said, "Look, your contract is running
01:35 out at the end of this season, would you be interested in sitting down and thrashing out
01:40 an extension?"
01:41 And they said, "Yes, yes we would."
01:42 And the Guardiola point's actually quite important here because there's going to be a lot of
01:45 talk this summer about there being a clear out and him wanting to keep the squad fresh
01:49 and wanting to move players on, he did not want to lose Gundogan.
01:52 In fact, there was a great report done in the Athletic a few months ago, Guardiola sat
01:56 down with some of his nearest and dearest on a rare day off, I think he took them to
02:00 a restaurant or something and the conversation inevitably turned to, "So are you just going
02:04 to let your captain leave for free this summer?"
02:08 And his response was, "Right now, he is too important to allow that to happen, we need
02:12 to keep him at the club."
02:13 "We can't afford to let him go" was apparently the exact words he used.
02:18 "We cannot replace him, we cannot."
02:21 So yes, anyway, Sitti's people sit down with Gundogan's people and they offer him a one
02:24 year contract extension on slightly less money than he was currently on.
02:29 And this was a problem.
02:31 But the problem wasn't the money, the problem was the one year element of the deal.
02:35 Gundogan is 32, he's probably only got one major sort of move left in him in Europe,
02:40 but more important than that is he's just had a child and he wanted some stability.
02:45 Knowing where he's going to be playing his football for the next year is obviously great
02:48 and that's important, but what he really wanted to know was where he's going to be playing
02:51 his football in the next two, possibly even three years.
02:55 Might sound basic, but if you've got a young child, you don't want to be moving them all
02:58 the way across Europe when they're two or three years old, if you can possibly help
03:01 it.
03:02 So that's what's going on with Manchester around March or April sort of time.
03:05 And this alerts Barcelona to the possibility that, "Oh, Gundogan's not actually massively
03:09 happy with the offer he's getting, he might be available for us in the summer."
03:13 Now again, for all Gundogan's first choice was to remain in Manchester, Barcelona's first
03:17 choice was to re-sign Lionel Messi.
03:20 But again, as the noises started to come out of Messi's camp and indeed confidence was
03:23 growing in America that he was going to sign over there, they realised that they probably
03:27 needed a plan B or better yet, a better plan than simply re-signing Messi.
03:31 Is there a younger, more adaptable player we could perhaps get for way less money?
03:36 And thus Gundogan's absolutely perfect.
03:38 Like Barcelona's financial troubles, which don't worry, we're going to get to in a minute,
03:42 not spending a massive outlay of a transfer fee is great.
03:46 And also not having to spend Lionel Messi level wages is great.
03:49 Combine all that with the obvious ability, pedigree and experience Gundogan has, and
03:54 he is the perfect signing for them this summer.
03:57 Now this then, as you can imagine, just starts going back and forward all the time and there's
04:00 little bits here and little bits there.
04:01 They're largely pretty irrelevant to all of this, but the important part is that round
04:04 about the time Barcelona offered him a two-year contract, City beat Bayern Munich in the Champions
04:09 League where Gundogan looked like an absolute star and this forced Pep Guardiola to step
04:14 in and tell the club to make him an improved offer.
04:18 Look at this man.
04:19 We don't want to lose him for nothing.
04:21 And over time they did, but the best they would offer him was like slightly more money
04:25 than he's on now, if not just the same salary and a two-year contract, but only with the
04:29 second year being an option for the club.
04:32 So guaranteed one year option to extend for a second.
04:35 Now that obviously offers a lot of things, but one thing it doesn't offer is stability.
04:39 And thus that is exactly where we have landed.
04:41 Gundogan has not signed that contract with Manchester City.
04:43 He has left and he has signed with Barcelona instead.
04:47 And yes, it is being reported that Barcelona offered him slightly more money, but I can't
04:50 stress enough that's not what the thinking was in this decision at all.
04:54 Gundogan and pretty much any other player available this summer that you would care
04:57 to name was offered absolutely astronomical sums of money to go to the Saudi League.
05:03 And obviously he would get a longer term contract there.
05:05 He would get more money.
05:06 So there's loads of stability there, but he signed with Barcelona because it's Barcelona.
05:11 And just to sweeten the deal even more, Barcelona's two-year contract offer then became a two-year
05:16 contract offer with the option to extend for a third.
05:19 And no doubt there'll be loads of discussion about the appeal of going to do a new project,
05:23 to live in a new city, to have a new great life experience.
05:25 But the belief coming out of Man City today, according to reports, is that they think if
05:30 they just offered him that second year, they probably would have kept him.
05:33 But anyway, that's the context of the story.
05:36 What is the actual story?
05:38 Well, fundamentally right now, Gundogan is a Barcelona player.
05:41 That is not up for debate.
05:43 But for him to actually play for Barcelona, he needs to first be registered.
05:48 So this could be a whole video in of itself, but I'll just give you the cliff notes.
05:51 Barcelona are in major financial trouble because of the way they are funded, the way they are
05:55 structured and the fact that La Liga brought in what is effectively a salary cap last season.
06:00 This meant that at one stage last summer, there was a genuine possibility they would
06:03 not be able to register any of their new summer signings for La Liga because they simply did
06:08 not have room in the budget for them to play.
06:11 Now, you may remember all this talk of pulling levers and doing things and selling off loads
06:15 of assets to make the money work.
06:17 In the end, they did find a way to do it.
06:18 But this has rumbled on all season to the point where they were nearly going to have
06:22 to let Gavi leave on a free because the new contract they'd given him to sign didn't fit
06:27 within the budget.
06:28 But again, going into the new season, they are almost entirely maxed out.
06:32 They are going to find it very, very difficult to register new players.
06:36 And this was reportedly one of the major issues that stopped Messi returning to the club.
06:40 Of course, he wanted to go back to Barcelona.
06:41 Of course, going to MLS was a second choice.
06:44 But Barcelona were confident of being able to pay for him, of being able to afford him.
06:49 They just did not have a concrete plan in place for how they would register him.
06:53 And it's all well and good just saying, oh, we'll sell loads of players and it'll be fine.
06:56 But you've got to have other clubs actually come in for these players.
07:00 Like a poor Frankie de Jong last season, they were convinced they'd just get rid of him
07:03 and nobody stumped up the cash.
07:05 And of course, Ilkay Gundogan and his representatives are not stupid.
07:09 There is a possibility he could sign for Barcelona, but not get registered ahead of the new season
07:14 and just spend the first six months of his contract doing nothing.
07:18 And thus today, following very quietly in the wake of the news of his announcement,
07:22 is the news reported to the Athletic and several other outlets that there is a clause in Ilkay
07:27 Gundogan's contract that means should Barcelona fail to be able to register him ahead of the
07:32 new La Liga season, he would be allowed to leave on a free, just tear up the contract,
07:37 go wherever he wants, become a free agent before the end of the transfer window and
07:42 still be paid the first full year of his salary as compensation.
07:47 That, or more the fact that that has to even exist in the first place for one of the biggest
07:51 clubs in the world, is f***ing nuts.
07:55 Now it's worth pointing out, of course, that Barcelona will have given him all number of
07:58 assurances that this won't be the case, that he probably wouldn't have signed if he thought
08:01 there was a substantial chance of this happening.
08:04 But that doesn't change the fact there is still a chance.
08:08 Barcelona's financial problems are not going to go away.
08:10 They are going to have to juggle things very cleverly in order to register any player this
08:15 summer.
08:16 And if any part of that starts to fall apart, it could happen.
08:19 There is then the possibility, albeit, yes, an outside possibility and what would ultimately
08:25 be one of the craziest stories in football history, that Elcaigunduan spends the whole
08:29 summer in Barcelona and then repacks all of his bags and goes back to Manchester.
08:35 Now do I personally think that's going to happen?
08:38 I mean, no, not really, but that is the only transfer this summer where that could even
08:43 happen so you can't dismiss it.
08:45 Anyway, best of luck to everybody involved.
08:47 That's what I always say, but let us know what you make of it all in the comments below.
08:51 And of course, don't forget to subscribe to us here on 442.
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08:58 In the meantime, you can catch me on Twitter @AdamClearyCLERY and of course 442 across
09:02 the entire social spectrum @442, the brand new magazine of which is available now from
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09:10 Until next time though, thank you very much for watching.
09:12 Yep, that's it.
09:13 That's all I've got.
09:14 Goodbye.
09:14 Goodbye!
09:15 (upbeat music)
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