Why Barcelona are letting Gundogan re-join Man City

Manchester City have now reached agreement with Ilkay Gündoğan over a free transfer from Barcelona. After leaving just 12 months ago, the former German international will rejoin City on a one year contract plus another one optional.

Gündoğa turns 34 in October and City were wary about offering him a two-year contract last year. So why does Pep want to bring back his previous captain? Plus, why are Barca willing to allow one of their best players to leave so soon? 

Ayo is joined by Manchester City correspondent Sam Lee and Barcelona writer Pol Ballus to discuss this huge developing story.

00:00:00 Intro
00:00:06 Gündoğan & Man City agreement
00:03:50 Is a Gündoğan return a no brainer?
00:08:26 Why would Barcelona let him go?
00:11:01 What role will Gündoğan play at City?
00:13:13 Barcelona’s finances
00:20:45 Man City’s interest in Kyogo
00:27:50 Man City’s finances
00:29:43 Final comments

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#mancity #barcelona #gundogan

[ryanschultz]

Gündogan created more chances(97) than any other player in LaLiga last season. He's still a top player!

[manyanyato]

That 140m for Coutinho really done them

[jjxnmsi]

Seeing Gundo at barca and Germany shows he hasn’t lost a step. There’s no reason why he doesn’t play regularly.

[BlueBloodPenn]

Makes complete sense for Gundo, really pleased he’s back.

[MidnightZerFGC]

Part of the problem is they’re fan owned and the fans demand new players and the club seemingly can’t say no to them, or rather are too afraid to.

Madrid were in a very similar situation and Perez said “okay no more big signings” for like 2, 3 years. They barely got anyone at all.

Even now they’re leveraging their name to get players on free, they were willing to wait for Mbappe etc

Barca seem desperate every season to get people in, as others have said, gundogan still plays at the top level. Use him?

Instead they’re getting him off the books to register Olmo.

Stop buying players. They’re meant to have this amazing academy, they talk about La Masia in hushed tones. Just come out and say we really have to tighten our belts for a few years, we will only sign free agents or very low fees and will promote from the academy. We may not win the league in that time but if we can get right we will be stronger.

Instead they just kick the can down the road. Another loan, another bit of the club sold off for 30 years, another lever pulled.

Don’t worry we will pay your wages later, don’t worry we will pay for this player later, don’t worry this loan? We will pay later

And then when god forbid someone asks for their money the walls fall in.

Defer this payments. defer that.

In real world terms it’s like pretending you don’t have massive credit card debt to go get a pay day loan to finance another car when though you don’t need one.

[chrisclassical]

gundogan's salary was too high for barcelona, did they not think of that before they signed him. how are barcelony not relegated. they have signed dani olmo and can't register him. boggles the mind.

[blazejon]

I don't know what happened to Barcelona and the Selecao from our youth, this is a bare joke

[danielberry]

Barca : Araujo is the best defender.

Also Barca : We haven’t been able to sell Araujo.

😂

[ErmIDK]

From what they said before he left Manchester living and eating especially in that city was getting to him and was a major reason in his leaving . How true that was IDK but i'd read that more than once

[alairdottin]

Xavi said there would be pain for the next coach. Appparently people didn’t want truth and the fact that he said they could not compete with Real Madrid. He was fired!!! The pain has started with the present situation, so he was right on that front. Let us see if he is correct on the second front….

[chriscrossways]

The eyebrow of Ancelotti and the voice of anglo-Rafa.

[DarthQueefious]

This talk of Gundo not playing all that much seems pretty bizarre to me. Form will dictate events and I've no doubt Gundo will be one of our better players this season. Our defense suffered last season because we lacked that technical controller in midfield outside and ahead of Rodri. Gundo solves that.

[Mark_S_Moss]

He dreamt of playing for Barca since being a kid. Gundo should have realised that they are now around 1.5 billion euro in debt and weren't playing at the Camp Nou while it gets a major facelift. Last season Barca played on top of the hill where most of Barca's season ticket holders chose to postpone their season tickets and not attend. Despite being broke and have reached their wage cap, they spent 51 million on Dani Olmo because Barca are a political organisation and they need a shiny new player every season to compete with Real Madrid who just got Mbappe and Endrick despite being broke themselves.

By the way, any chance of Barca actually paying what they owe Man City for Ferran Torres? UEFA need to get involved. How can they spend 50 million on Olmo and not pay what they still owe to City?

[cajeeofkitagawa]

11 mins in and no one has mentioned the emergence of Marc Bernal from La Masia, Busquets reincarnated. Maybe thats why they let Gundogan go :P

[jjxnmsi]

City probably winning the league again

[bonganisiziba]

Butchered Pol's surname😂😂😂 the raised eyebrows confirm it

[eyesopen]

Pundits so wrong about IG and thinking that he's coming to semi retire? He's here to win more trophies IMO?

[richlaw]

We are happy Gundogan left, Man-City loves to see him back. What’s the problem, all parties involved are happy .

[deenuk]

Because they're the worst run club with the worst fans in the world

[dylanriver]

Raphina or Olmo to Manchester United please.