Manchester City’s quest for Jack Grealish has dominated recent transfer headlines, but revenue is not the only deal the club is focusing on this summer.
Cityzens are trying to bolster their latest dominance of English football, which has really, really been interrupted by Liverpool’s Premier League title success in 2019/20 and Leicester’s FA Cup victory in May.
However, winning the Champions League remains on City’s to-do list, as well as bringing in fresh faces like Grealish – and even Harry Kane, should Pep Guardiola get his way – tying key players to new contracts is a high priority.
Athletic notes that a key player in the queue for a new contract is Ederson, who can be rewarded with a new three-year contract despite his current contract running until 2025. Talks are already planned with the Brazilian – who picked up the Premier League’s golden glove last season – and it is expected that the negotiations will go smoothly.
John Stones and Phil Foden are two others who can be rewarded with new terms, while it is already known that Raheem Sterling is in line for a new contract. Ruben Dias could also get a higher salary increase after a shimmering first season in English football.
It is the award of a new deal to Ederson that catches the eye the most, but is perhaps not entirely surprising given the seismic impact he has had on Etihad since joining in 2017. The 27-year-old has missed just seven of any 152 Premier League matches – holds 71 clean sheets during that time – and quickly enters 200 matches for City in all competitions.
He already has three Premier League crowns to his name and ten trophies in total, while he also started last season’s defeat against Chelsea in the Champions League final.
His plethora of trophies in Manchester follows a successful spell at Benfica, which he won back-to-back Primeira Liga titles before going for £ 35m – a fee that at the time made him the second most expensive goalkeeper in history behind the legendary Gianluigi Buffon.
