Man City: Paul Merson picks out ‘issue’ with £50m January signing as they ‘panic badly’

Lewis Oldham
Arsenal legend Paul Merson during an interview
Paul Merson questions Manchester City's transfer decision.

Arsenal legend Paul Merson has picked out the main “issue” for Manchester City regarding centre-midfielder Nico Gonzalez ahead of his £50m move.

Man City have been active in the transfer market as head coach Pep Guardiola kickstarted a huge rebuild at the Etihad after their poor end to 2024 ended their Premier League title hopes.

The Premier League holders are the biggest spender in Europe as they have invested around £130m to sign Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis.

Man City are looking to make one more signing before the January transfer window closes on Monday night as they are pursuing Porto midfielder Gonzalez.

👉 January Transfer Deadline Day 2025: Follow it LIVE with F365…

On Monday afternoon, transfer expert Fabrizio Romano revealed Gonzalez had been permitted to travel for his medical after Man City and Porto agreed a £50m deal for the former Barcelona star.

Heading into this window, it was expected that their priority would be signing a centre-midfielder to replace Rodri, who has been ruled out for the rest of this season with a serious knee injury.

After being linked with several potential targets, Man City have settled on Gonzalez and Merson reckons they could be making a mistake, even though he’s “not seen” him play before.

“I’ve not seen this lad play so don’t know too much about him. But they need players in midfield. A lot of people say it’s not just Rodri. It is just Rodri,” Merson said on Sky Sports.

READ: Arsenal ‘classless, unsportsmanlike, disrespectful’ after putting Pep in the ground

“Rodri sees danger, Rodri is disciplined, Rodri stays in the centre, he gets forward and sits back and protects the backline as well, and he passes the ball through the line very quickly.

“I like Kovacic, but he will go over and dribble with the ball and people end up all out of position. Him and Bernardo Silva get just ruined in the last 30 minutes at Arsenal.

“If you take away the 30 minutes and first 20, City were very good at Arsenal. It was a good away performance. But that takes away the first 20 minutes when they could have been out of the game, and the last 30 minutes – so it’s not much in between that.

“The issue is that Gonzalez comes in for £50m, as soon as Rodri’s fit that’s it. I don’t think he plays. Unless you play them together and I don’t think you need to.

“This is the problem with wages and buying players, you forget that by the start of next season, this guy is sitting on the bench with big money. You then look at McAtee with a brilliant young future and they will have to sell him for the fair play rules. It’s a knock-on effect. If they buy Gonzalez, they must be panicking badly to get into the top four.”