With Manchester City currently sixth in the Premier League, a whopping 12 points adrift run-away league-leaders Liverpool, Pep Guardiola will surely look to dip into the transfer market this January, especially considering the Sky Blues potentially have scop to spend big this month.
Last summer, Savinho was brought in from within the City Football Group for a reported £30m, but the club actually made a profit of around £126m in players sales, following the departures of Julián Álvarez (£81.5m), João Cancelo (£21m), Liam Delap (£20m) and Taylor Harwood-Bellis (£20m).
Potentially partially due to Álvarez’s sale, goal-scoring has been an issue for the Citizens this season so far; they’re currently on course to score only 68 goals, having bagged, on average, 96 league goals per season across the last seven campaigns.
So could the return of a former Man City wide-man help get the goals flowing again?
Man City looking to re-sign former winger
According to a report by Pete O’Rourke for Football Insider, Manchester City are preparing a “shock swoop” to bring Leroy Sané back to the club, five years after he departed.
Manuel Veth of Forbes adds that Sané is out of contract with current club Bayern Munich at the end of the season, stating that the winger, who’s now able to agree a pre-contract agreement with a foreign club, is highly likely to depart, given that “no negotiations to renew his deal” have taken place.
Sané joined Man City from Schalke in 2016, the same summer Guardiola arrived, for a reported £37m, scoring 39 goals and providing 43 assists during 135 appearances in sky blue, winning back-to-back Premier League titles, the FA Cup and three EFL Cups.
During this period, Gary Neville described the German as “electric”, adding “as a right-back… I would not want to play against” him.
However, after he rejected the offer of a new contract in the summer of 2020, Sané was sold to Bayern Munich for around £45m, racking up 53 goals and 51 assists in 194 appearances for the Bavarian giants to date.
How Leroy Sané would slot into Man City's team
The 28-year-old has seen opportunities limited under Vincent Kompany, starting only eight matches across all competitions, albeit he did score during Bayern’s final two Bundesliga fixtures prior to the winterpause, on target in defeat at Mainz and then during the 5-1 drubbing of RB Leipzig just before Christmas.
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So, with Sané set to be on the move in 2025, could a return to Man City suit both the player and the Citizens?
Of course, given that Erling Braut Haaland now has 21 goals to his name already this season, one would assume goals are not an issue for the four-in-a-row Premier League champions.
However, after the Norwegian, their next-highest scorers are Phil Foden on five and defender Joško Gvardiol with four, due to the fact the Sky Blues’ wide-players are simply not offering enough end-product, Jack Grealish in particular coming under scrutiny, given that it’s now 389-days, and counting, since his most-recent club goal.
At the weekend, Guardiola admitted Savinho got the nod over Grealish because the Brazilian “is in better shape”, so just how do Sané and Grealish compare, and would the German be an upgrade?
Appearances
69
62
Minutes
4,502
3,362
Goals
16
5
Assists
14
6
Shots
151
66
Shots on target %
41.7%
33.3%
Progress carries
206
215
Shot-creating actions
227
144
Attempted take-ons
283
91
Take-on success %
53.7%
40.7%
Touches
2,572
1,628
The table above clearly outlines, since the start of last season, Sané has been an exponentially more dangerous attacker than Grealish, scoring over three times as many goals, registering over double the number of assists and accumulating significantly more shot-creating actions.
On top of this, Sané has attempted over three times more take-ons, with a significantly higher take-on success %, underlining, as noted by Richard Jolly of the Independent, Grealish is no longer “one of the most exciting attacking players in world football” as he was at Aston Villa, with Richie Mills of Goal arguing Guardiola is responsible for “sucking the football” out of him.
Thus, in summary, re-signing Sané would be a no-brainer, especially considering he’s available for free.
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