Manchester City: Why Ilkay Gundogan has been Pep Guardiola's greatest signing

Ilkay Gundogan Manchester City
(Image credit: Getty)

Manchester City and Pep Guardiola aren't known for making astute signings, as such. It's a common criticism of Pep: he's a chequebook manager who can only win with billions to spend. There's certainly evidence to back it up.

Spending £60m on the obvious signing of Erling Haaland is smart, sure, but obvious: it doesn't take a recruitment expert to make that recommendation. Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez weren't exactly undiscovered gems. Phil Foden came from the academy, Kevin de Bruyne, Fernandinho and Raheem Sterling were signed pre-Pep. Ederson was an amazing buy – maybe masking the boob of bringing in Claudio Bravo a season prior before relegating him to back-up goalkeeper.

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Mark White
Content Editor

Mark White is the Digital Content Editor at FourFourTwo. During his time on the brand, Mark has written three cover features on Mikel Arteta, Martin Odegaard and the Invincibles, and has written pieces on subjects ranging from Sir Bobby Robson’s time at Barcelona to the career of Robinho. An encyclopedia of football trivia and collector of shirts, he first joined the team back in 2020 as a staff writer.