Donnarumma's arrival at City signals a style shift

It would be understandable if Pep Guardiola's thoughts turn ever more to Istanbul. The city that crosses continents is where the Catalan won what may prove to be his last European Cup.

- RICHARD JOLLY SENIOR FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT

The trophy Manchester City finally claimed in 2023 was lifted by Ilkay Gundogan, now of Galatasaray. When he reflected on the final against Internazionale, Guardiola always tended to afford most credit to Ederson, now of Fenerbahce, for his string of late saves. Perhaps that was the ultimate irony of the definitive footballing goalkeeper: now his City career is over, the greatest moments required the traditional skills of a goalkeeper.

But Ederson was the revolutionary. His successor, Gianluigi Donnarumma, is only 26 but has long looked the youngest member of the ancien regime, a goalkeeper out of time; out, in particular, of Guardiola’s time. If it is possible to be simultaneously the best goalkeeper in the world and the least Guardiola goalkeeper in the world, Donnarumma is. But perhaps Guardiola, and his style of football, made a prodigy look an anachronism when he was barely out of his teens.

It explains the mixed reaction to a signing that would otherwise have appeared a coup. Much as City have spent in the last 17 years, they have rarely recruited players who have already won the Champions League; nor those who have been anointed as the game’s finest in their position. Yet if Ederson was a statement signing, a signal of the direction a team was taking, what is Donnarumma? A glimpse into life after Guardiola, perhaps; an indication City will be less distinct, less shaped by footballing ideology? An example of footballing opportunism, a recognition that the outstanding goalkeeper in last season’s Champions League was available at an affordable price at a point when, for the second successive summer, Ederson had acquired a wanderlust? An admission that, more than before, City need a goalkeeper who blocks shots?