Manchester City have agreed a deal with Arsenal for Gabriel Jesus to move to the Emirates Stadium this summer, but Dietmar Hamann believes Pep Guardiola is making a mistake letting him go.
He told Genting Casino: “Pep Guardiola is making a mistake by letting Gabriel Jesus leave. Erling Haaland has had his injury problems and the Premier League is a very physical league. If you look at Gabriel Jesus’ stats, they’re brilliant. He’s scored a lot of goals for them so I’m surprised he’s been allowed to leave.”
The 25-year-old scored 13 goals and made 12 assists from 41 games this season, so he greatly contributed to City’s Premier League title triumph. But Jesus is opting to join a side that missed out on Champions League football because he’s not playing in his preferred position and doesn’t regularly start.
The Brazilian international started only 21 Premier League games from a possible 38 in 2021/22 and started just three Champions League outings from a possible 12, so it’s easy to see why Jesus was unhappy. And with his contract having 12 months remaining, City had little choice but to cash in rather than losing him for free next year.
Bringing in Julian Alvarez from River Plate and Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund will improve City’s attack, but the former may not be a regular to begin with while the latter has had problems with fitness – six Bundesliga games missed in 2019/20 and 10 Bundesliga games missed in 2020/21.
Jesus has been a brilliant servant for City with 95 goals and 46 assists from 236 games, so he’ll be a hard player to replace.
In other news, Pep Guardiola right to sell Nathan Ake, but replacing him is hard for two reasons