Pep Guardiola has made major changes to the squad after leading Manchester City to a successful treble last season. One of the most crucial points was the failure to retain the captain Gundogan, who eventually moved to La Liga giants Barcelona.
In order to strengthen the midfield, Guardiola signed Kovacic from Chelsea for 29.1 million euros and Nunes from Wolves, which is also a Premier League team, for 62 million.
Embarrassingly, two players that Manchester City acquired for a total of more than 90 million euros have not been able to integrate into the team this season. Mateo Kovacic scored just one goal in 26 Premier League appearances, while Nunes is no better, making 18 Premier League appearances and providing just two assists.
Kovacic and Nunes have proven to be the two biggest dealers compared to Gundogan, and it is precisely because of the failure of these two signings that Manchester City's control of the midfield this season is not as strong as before, which is one of the most important reasons why they only stopped in the quarter-finals of the Champions League this season.
While Manchester City still have title hopes in the Premier League and FA Cup this season, Guardiola is concerned that the club's current midfield core Kevin De Bruyne has already received an offer of more than £100 million from the Saudi side, and the club's management and players are excited about it, and Manchester City are likely to lose the Belgian star this summer.
Kevin De Bruyne suffered a serious injury at the start of the season and is finally back in action after months of surgery and recovery. Truth be told, De Bruyne's performances could have earned him a valuable long-term contract this season, but it was the serious injury combined with the 32-year-old that the City management had changed their minds and preferred to send De Bruyne early to free up space and salary space to sign a younger, more capable midfielder.
To add insult to injury, Pep Guardiola's other key midfielder, Seat B, has long had the idea of leaving the Premier League and moving to Barcelona for the sake of his family, and after Xavi confirmed that he would stay next season, one of his demands on Barça's management was to sign the Portuguese midfielder.
With six goals and five assists in 29 Premier League appearances for Manchester City this season, it was De Bruyne who propped up City's midfield during his absence due to injury, while also helping City retain their chances of winning the Premier League title to this day.
Although last year, under the persuasion of Pep Guardiola, seat B renewed his contract with Manchester City and inserted a release clause of 50 million pounds, but with the player's ability and outstanding performance this season, Barcelona is willing to accept the transfer of seat B even if it is smashed.
What is certain is that if both of Manchester City's aforementioned midfielders abandon Pep Guardiola this summer, the team's control in midfield will drop even further, and Guardiola will obviously have to prepare in advance.
According to the "Independent", Manchester City is interested in bringing in Bayern Munich midfielder Musiala this summer, the 21-year-old talent has very good speed and attacking ability, and can pass and shoot, is a rare technical midfielder in today's football.
Unfortunately, although Bayern is facing a rebuilding of the midfield and forward line this summer, they also attach great importance to Musiala, the future leader of German football, and they intend to build Bayern's attacking combination next season with Musiala as the core, so it is very unlikely that Manchester City will take Musiala from the Allianz Arena.
Thankfully, Pep Guardiola also has a back on his side, and he has been eyeing Serie A champions Inter's midfielder Barella for a long time, although the Italian midfielder is likely to receive a €7 million contract extension. But even if the contract is renewed, with the Nerazzurri's current financial situation, it will be difficult for them to refuse an offer from the Manchester City tycoon.
It is worth mentioning that Pep Guardiola had a very high opinion of Barella last season, believing that if the Italian midfielder is signed, the latter can play a key role in Manchester City's future tactical system.