Gabriel Jesus was confirmed as Manchester City 12th summer departure on Monday morning, joining Pedro Porro (£7.65m to Sporting), Ko Itakura (£4.5m to Borussia Monchengladbach), Fernandinho (free transfer to Athletic Paranaense), Gavin Bazunu (£12.6m to Southampton), Darko Gyabi (£3.5m to Leeds) Jayden Braaf (free transfer to Borussia Dortmund), CJ Egan-Riley (free transfer to Burnley), Taylor Harwood-Bellis (loan to Burnley), Mohammed Aminu (released), Kwaku Oduroh (released) and Rowan McDonald (released) through the exit door.
Pep Guardiola might regret letting him join Arsenal, however, as the 25-year-old is a talented player whose versatility was a major asset. Jesus scored 13 goals with 12 assists from 41 games in all competitions last season, switching between both flanks and up front, so why has he been sold after his most prolific campaign at City?
Guardiola’s loss will be Mikel Arteta’s gain, as the Brazilian international’s had a hand in 90 goals from 159 Premier League games since he came to England – 1 goal/assist every 1.76 games. Last season, he created more chances (1 every 49.5 minutes) than Raheem Sterling (50.6) and Phil Foden (53.3), so Jesus had value to Guardiola.
It’s a risky game weakening your own side significantly to strengthen a rival, so this sale might be regrettable. City had to cash in rather than risk losing Jesus for nothing, but it’s not easy finding a player that scored and creates goals in double figures. The constant squad rotating was clearly too much to bear, so he’ll now be a regular in the Arsenal attack.
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Jesus has had several seasons to prove his worth as a no 9.
Cannot fault his effort but like Raheem he is wasteful and in big matches that has cost us on numerous occasions. Pep wants clinician finishers and hence him and hence they both can go. Lot of funds coming in and we have Alvarez and Haaland.would love to see felix added to the ranks.