Man City are about to make the summer’s biggest mistake – here’s how Pep can limit the damage

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 16 Aug 2025 11:54 BST
• 11 min read

Analysis

Manchester City kick the new Premier League season off against Wolves on Saturday with three new faces in Pep Guardiola’s starting XI.

Rayan Ait-Nouri, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki are all likely to make their debuts for the Cityzens after completing moves worth a total of €125 million to the Etihad Stadium this summer.

But what will be most notable about City’s squad is who is not involved.

Rico Lewis is absent from Guardiola’s plans, with the 20-year-old on the verge of joining Nottingham Forest.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are willing to double the England international’s wages to lure him to the City Ground in a move that promises to be a masterstroke from the rapidly improving Premier League club.

It could also be City’s biggest transfer disaster since allowing Cole Palmer to join Chelsea for just €47m in 2023.

Current ETV

Rico Lewis

D (R)

Man City

Rico Lewis

D (R)

Man City

€70.7M

ETV Range

€63.7M - €77.8M

View full profile

Three reasons City have got this wrong

• Selling too cheap
• Lewis is their best right-back
• He has best-in-the-world potential

Guardiola’s side are reportedly demanding a fee of over €35 million (£30m) for Lewis, who featured on 28 occasions for City in the Premier League last season, to leave for Forest.

This promises to be a catastrophic error of judgement. Lewis has an Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of €70.7m – around twice as much as City want for him.

But it’s not just financially that the Manchester club are undervaluing him. Data analytics firm rated Lewis as among the best full-backs in the Premier League last season.

Rico Lewis vs Premier League full-backs: Overall performance (2024/25)

It’s not a position that City are blessed with quality in. Indeed, Matheus Nunes is likely to fill the role against Wolves, his former side, on Saturday. The central midfielder played the role at times last season with mixed impact.

Lewis is not only a natural in the right-back spot; he’s also got incredible potential.

The young City star has a higher ceiling than any other right-back in the world currently, according to SciSports. He has the potential to outdo Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jeremie Frimpong, Achraf Hakimi and anyone else you care to mention in the role.

So what are they doing about it?

Since the Cole Palmer farce, when it quickly emerged that Guardiola had messed things up drastically, City have changed their transfer policy when it comes to selling young players.

They have consistently installed buy-back clauses when making sales like this – and they have shown they’re not afraid to use them. James Trafford, for example, had one such clause installed in his transfer when he moved to Burnley. City used this to beat Newcastle to sign the goalkeeper.

Should Lewis move to Nottingham Forest, it seems certain that another such agreement will be reached. Further insurance is likely to come in the form of a sell-on percentage of any future deal.

City will do their best to futureproof themselves over Lewis, but in the meantime will still face criticism over why they have allowed such a promising talent to depart so cheaply.

Football transfer news headlines today

DONE DEALS: Every official completed transfer around Europe today

Barcelona spring huge Rashford SURPRISE ahead of Mallorca clash

Fabrizio Romano Transfer News: Baleba talks WON’T stop, NEW Man City moves, Donnarumma UPDATES

Liverpool seal Isak move as €29m deal agreed

Chelsea complete agreement with €65m star - Romano

The FootballTransfers app

Check out FootballTransfers' new app for all of football's big storylines, transfer rumours and exclusive news in one convenient place directly on your mobile device.

The FootballTransfers app is available on Google Play and in the Apple App Store. Download here:

•Google Play

•App Store