İlkay Gündoğan recently shown the $296million Liverpool advantage that Jurgen Klopp still holds over Pep Guardiola

Manchester City could reportedly lose five players who cost a combined $296m this summer and could point to one area where Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp beats Pep Guardiola.

As if the season wasn’t already painful enough for Liverpool fans, it ended with Manchester City winning the Champions League to seal the treble.

Historically, Liverpool and City have not been close rivals, but since the takeover of the club by Sheikh Mansour in 2008, and particularly during the Jürgen Klopp era, a close rivalry has developed on the ground.

And it has also expanded beyond the confines of the field, becoming a symbolic battle between an established giant and the nouveau riche.

While many Reds fans are hesitant to admit it, it would have been painful to see City win their first Champions League after years of ‘where is your European Cup?’ mocks club visits to Anfield.

Pep Guardiola’s side had already won the Premier League, overtaken Arsenal as the Gunners withered under City’s robotic ruthlessness, and defeated local rivals Manchester United to dethrone Liverpool in the FA Cup.

Yet despite this historic milestone, the first of the millennium, there are at least five big names who could leave the Etihad this summer, according to The Athletic’s Sam Lee.

Kyle Walker, who joined Spurs for $64m (£50m/€59m) in 2017, looks set to make a shocking move after growing ‘unhappy’ with his playing time and a place in the final for having lost the Champions League.

Aymeric Laporte, who picked up a record $73m (£57m/€67m) from Athletic Bilbao in 2018, looks ‘certain’ to follow him out the door.

Then there’s İlkay Gündoğan, bought seven years ago from Borussia Dortmund for $27m (£21m/€25m) and has yet to make a decision about his future when his contract expires.

City are doing everything they can to keep him, but according to the Manchester Evening News, they had to name him on their published list for the Premier League and he could choose to go to Barcelona (via The Athletic).

Another round of Bernardo Silva speculation looms as the $55m (£43m/€50m) former Monaco player mulls a possible move to Paris Saint-Germain, as reported Fabrizio Romano (via GOAL).

Finally, Riyad Mahrez is ready to join the Saudi league influx, five years after his $77m (£60m/€70m) transfer from Leicester.

He was apparently ‘very disappointed’ not to be in the FA Cup or Champions League final.
With the exception of Laporte, who ended up in midfield at the bottom of the hierarchy, each of these players played a key role in an all-time excellent season.

Gundoğan, Bernardo and Mahrez have all been in the club’s top 10 by minutes and Walker was not far behind in 12th place.

They could join Joao Cancelo, Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ferran Torres and Leroy Sane in their quest to leave City, despite the club’s lavish success under Guardiola.

Conversely, since Philippe Coutinho ultimately left Liverpool as a “stepping stone” in 2018, the club have lost just three key players.

We defined this as players who logged more than 2,000 minutes in their last season as an indication of their importance.

The only trio to pass this test are Sadio Mane, Georginio Wijnaldum and Emre Can, and even then Wijnaldum said he wanted to stay but was not offered an attractive contract (via ECHO).

The conclusion we can rightfully draw here is that Klopp is much better at keeping his players happy than Guardiola, whether through his rotation, his man management skills or both.

There is an argument that the aforementioned players just want a new challenge after winning everything at City (the Champions League had eluded them until now), but you can counter that by pointing out that Gundoğan could have signed a new contract long ago., and Bernardo seems to have been on the verge of an exit for years.

One might even question whether this is really a problem for Guardiola in light of his continued dominance, but two of the players started against Inter Milan in Istanbul, another came on and the two who have not been involved come from traditionally vital players.

Laporte made the PFA Team of the Year in 2018-19 and Mahrez has been named the club’s Player of the Month seven times, including twice last season.

City is unlikely to lose all five, but even with its seemingly endless resources it may not be immune to the consequences if two or three stars are gone.

Yes, the club have the resources to bring in elite replacements, but signings inherently involve some risk and some take time to settle in rather than immediately rise to the level of their predecessors, like City with Jack Grealish and Kalvin Phillips noted in recent years.

Meanwhile, there is no indication that any of the players who were truly crucial for Liverpool last season will attempt to leave the club, despite the Reds failing to even qualify for the Champions League.
Maybe Klopp deserves credit for that as he is perhaps superior to Guardiola in this area.