Ten Manchester City legends replaced without a hitch as Ederson Saudi-bound

Ederson looks as though he’s set for the Manchester City exit door this summer but the departure of club legends hasn’t proven a problem thus far for Pep Guardiola and his trophy-winning machine.

Giorgi Mamardashvili is thought to be Guardiola’s ‘favourite’ to come in for the Saudi-bound goalkeeper, and based on the replacements of previous star player,s the Valencia stopper may well prove to be an upgrade. God help us all.

Anyway, we’ve come up with 10 club legends and the players who replaced them – not necessarily in the very same transfer window, but near enough – to curb the concerns of City fans set to mourn Ederson’s exit as the rest of us are reminded of the reality that only one departure can stop the City train in its tracks.

Ederson for Joe Hart

It’s easy after seven years of Ederson excellence for us to turn our noses up at what Hart did for Manchester City. Guardiola wanted a goalkeeper who was more comfortable in possession and fair enough, but that was initially Claudio Bravo, who was more than a little ropey when it came to the real goalkeeping stuff in which Hart excelled.

Hart won the Golden Glove on four occasions in seven seasons before he was ousted in favour of Ederson, who combined shot-stopping with ludicrous footballing ability to rip up the Premier League goalkeeping handbook.

Kyle Walker for Pablo Zabaleta

Like when an old dog needs putting out of its misery, Zabaleta wasn’t going to give Manchester City a sign that it was time, but it was. Very much in that Branislav Ivanovic mould of right-backs who would rather die of shame than have a winger go past them with their legs intact, the question wasn’t whether Zabaleta needed replacing, but how Guardiola came to the conclusion that Kyle Walker – Tottenham’s raiding, carefree wide man – was the man to replace him.

We didn’t account for the power of Pep’s fun-sucking force as he turned Walker into an incredibly solid but vanilla full-back.

Rodri for Fernandinho

You may well remember the ‘Fernandinho is irreplaceable’ discourse that actually continued into the season after Rodri arrived at the club, mainly down to City’s slightly odd decision not to immediately replace Vincent Kompany, which paved the way for Liverpool to win the title by 18 points amid a centre-back crisis at the Etihad.

Pretty clear now that Rodri has proven to be a significant upgrade, adding gradually more forward thrust to his game and the City midfield that was lacking with Fernandinho at the base of midfield. The Brazilian never got close to being a candidate for the Ballon d’Or.

Josko Gvardiol for Joao Cancelo

Cancelo was arguably not just the best full-back but the best player in the Premier League in his last full season before leaving in January for 2023 Bayern Munich, supposedly for being a disruptive little so-and-so. How do you replace the best left-back in the Premier League? You don’t. You play a centre-back at left-back and win the Treble and then buy another centre-back and turn him into a left-back who makes the team of the season in his debut campaign.

Phil Foden for David Silva

The football hipsters will claim that Silva is Manchester City’s greatest ever player, despite definitely actually knowing that the correct answer is Kevin De Bruyne. That’s hardly a burn on Silva though, who was – if we’re to give him a City accolade – the most beautiful player to watch.

His departure left a hole in the side for Foden, who’s scored 72 goals in the four seasons since Silva left for Real Sociedad, winning the Premier League on all four occasions, as many as Silva won in his decade-long stint at the Etihad, and capped it all with the Player of the Season gong last term. Shame he was a bit balls for England.

Ruben Dias for Vincent Kompany

City failed to replace Kompany in the summer of 2019 to their cost the following season as they watched Liverpool storm to the title, but they put it right a year later, signing both Dias and Nathan Ake in the same summer.

Dias was named Premier League Player of the Season in his first campaign and has won the league title in each of his four seasons in England, along with an FA Cup, League Cup and the Champions League.

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No one for Sergio Aguero

A bold move not to replace the greatest striker in the club’s history, but Aguero’s departure merely meant more of the goalscoring load was shared among the other forwards at the Etihad across a season in which they managed 99 Premier League goals to have us all wondering whether strikers were a dying breed.

Erling Haaland for Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus

They more than coped without Aguero in 2021/2022 but the sales of two further significant contributors of goals in Sterling and Jesus saw City go all old-fashioned and sign the most goalscoring of all goalscorers in world football.

Haaland broke all the records in his debut season, scoring 52 goals in 52 games to help City to the Treble.

Jeremy Doku for Riyad Mahrez

Not like-for-like as Mahrez played almost exclusively on the right while Doku operates the left, but it was one dribbling menace who likes to cut in for another. Doku still has much to do to reach the heights of Mahrez, but won the Premier League in his debut campaign and played his part. More to come, no doubt.