Gündoğan is a maestro, but Xavi's got Barcelona playing like a bunch of headless chickens. Financial chaos, tactical confusion - it's no wonder Gündoğan's struggling. He's a Guardiola player, through and through. Designed for him was that City system. Every pass and every movement was poetry in action. At Barcelona? It's disjointed and annoying. And the locker room atmosphere cannot be very good
City is now playing it cool on the transfer scene. There are no overpaying or panicked purchases. Gündoğan understands that they are waiting. Next summer he's a free agent, a plug-and-play Guardiola midfielder. Why wouldn't they want him back? For Gündoğan, it is a gamble. Stick it out at Barcelona; hope things turn around. Or go back to the familiar, to the system that made him a star?
City is in the upper hand here. They know his value, they know he fits. And patience is a weapon in this wild economy. If Gündoğan returns in sky blue following season, not be shocked. It just makes too much sense
I had a lot of questions when Gundogan decided to move to Barcelona, it was difficult to understand what could have prompted him to leave such a big team as City. Now he is coming back and in this case I have no questions, everything is very clear here, City is much stronger and perhaps the reason is also that Gundogan is more comfortable working with Guardiola. For Barcelona this is bad, because he is leaving the team as a free agent, which means that Barcelona in a bad financial situation is simply losing money, and for City this is very good because they get a very important player back, without any additional expenses on transfers.