TA: Manchester City knows that Donnarumma s footwork is flawed, but his reaction + save is better than Ederson

Hupu September 3rd News TheAthleticUK reporter team wrote the Manchester City summer window column.

After signing Nuri, Reindez and Cherki, Manchester City only responded passively for the rest of the transfer window, as there seems to be no ideal candidate in the right-back market.

They seem to be destined to work with Ederson and Ortega for another season so they can focus their resources on other priority areas.

Traford is highly respected. He has been in youth training since he was 12 years old and is a member of Burnley's main player. He conceded incredibly 16 goals in the Championship last season. Because of this, they added a buyback option when selling Trafford in 2023 because they saw his future potential.

However, until Newcastle United, which had long regarded Trafford as a goal, the final decision was left to the clause.

Manchester City activates the matching clause, and the £27 million offer handed over the decision to Trafford, who ended up choosing Manchester City. Under the leadership of Eddie Howe, he was likely to become the main goalkeeper of Newcastle United, and even if not immediately, he should be in the near future.

But at Manchester City, he faces 32-year-old Ederson, who is about to enter the final year of his contract, constantly suffering from injuries and making more costly mistakes than ever before.

In this case, he can only make 56 appearances in three seasons, get a chance to play in the first season, and share playing time before he can prove himself the real successor next summer.

However, Manchester City had never expected Donnarumma to be a goalkeeper candidate, as he made 486 appearances for AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and the Italian national team, with an amazing result. It was not until he publicly expressed his "disappointment" at Enrique's decision to replace him with Schalvalier after his brilliant performance in 2024-25 that Manchester City discovered that he was for sale.

The two sides agreed on the player's personal terms before the two clubs reached a transfer fee agreement, but Paris Saint-Germain knew the Italian player was willing to wait for the right offer.

If this means waiting until January next year, he is also ready. Not forced to leave. Paris Saint-Germain will lose a transfer fee and will continue to pay wages during his training with the Bomb Squad.

However, this transfer is premised on Ederson being able to leave because City cannot have five first-team goalkeepers and must also comply with UEFA's team cost ratio, which stipulates that the club's team costs must not exceed 70% of its total revenue. However, a series of spending in the last two weeks helped the team through the difficulties.

Galatasaray also chased Akanji and signed Gundogan, and they were interested in Ederson.

People expect Fenerbahce to compete for Ederson, but it seems to be a question after they missed the Champions League and fired Jose Mourinho. However, in the end, the two sides reached an agreement, and Donnarumma completed a physical examination in Italy, and Manchester City also obtained Ederson's transfer documents. Both deals were confirmed Tuesday.

Sources declined to be named and told TheAthletic without anonymity that Manchester City knew that the Italian player had poor footwork, but compared to Ederson, it seemed that every goalkeeper was similar.

(Sources, speaking anonymously to The Athletic to Protectrelationships, say that Cityarewellaware that the Italianis inferior with his feet, but that soiseveryone compared to Ederson.)

Their research on Ederson's game shows that Donnarumma is better in terms of reaction speed and responsiveness.

For a team that has been shot far more than before, it makes sense to return to the previous principle of "not letting the ball in", but some people believe that Donnarumma's limitations have been exaggerated.