Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Ilkay Gundogan has earned a contract extension, but that does not mean he will still be at the Etihad next season. Gundogan rejoined City from Barcelona last summer on a one-year deal.
However, his contract contained a clause that would trigger a one-year extension if he made a certain number of appearances for City and Gundogan has ended up playing 43 games this season. Only Josko Gvardiol has been used more often by Guardiola.
However, Gundogan’s future remains up in the air, with Guardiola admitting he does not know whether the midfielder will stay. City are going through a rebuild, with 33-year-old Kevin De Bruyne set to leave the club when his deal expires in the summer and 34-year-old Kyle Walker expected to make his loan move to AC Milan permanent.
Gundogan is City’s oldest remaining outfield player and when asked about his future, Guardiola said: “He has one more year on his contract, definitely. What is going to happen I don’t know, but he has one more year now.
“The Gundo from Leicester, the Gundo from Bournemouth and the Gundo from today is the Gundo I remember. When we won the Treble he was so important.
“His activity, space, his defensive intelligence, when he arrives. Gundo has been with us massively. But as a team, we could not help him. It is not about ‘you, you, you’.
“Everyone was down. Everyone was below because the team was not playing good. When the team plays good the player arrives. Without that, in modern football, you cannot do it.”
City are pushing to qualify for next season’s Champions League after enduring a difficult campaign and currently sit fifth in the Premier League table. Opening up about City’s in a recent interview, Gundogan suggested the squad have been lacking “determination and desire”.
He told ESPN earlier this month: “I feel like in a lot of games from our side maybe we gave sometimes a bit too much importance to tactics and didn’t really pay attention much on behaviour; behaviours of ourselves.
“Having that determination, that desire, aggressivity. Like simple things that are part of the game, but maybe sometimes you just think too much about positioning yourself or whatever.
“You might forget the other things that are kind of normal or that should be normal at least. Honestly in the last few games I see a certain change, especially that uncomfortable, very uncomfortable game against Bournemouth in the FA Cup.
“The way they play — aggressive, physically strong — and the way we behave there away at their place, especially after also conceding the first one, I think it was just unbelievable.”
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