Pep can forget De Bruyne by unleashing Man City's 17-year-old assist king

2025 is set to be a year of mass change at Manchester City.

In the January transfer market, the Sky Blues actively made their squad younger, spending around £180m on Juma Bah (18), Nico González (23), Abdukodir Khusanov (21), Vitor Reis (19) and Omar Marmoush, the slight exception at 26 years old.

Meantime, 34-year-old captain Kyle Walker was allowed to depart for AC Milan, with a few more Man City stalwarts in their 30s also forecast to depart in the summer.

So, as Pep Guardiola oversees a huge reconfiguration of his squad, do the Citizens have a teenager, tearing it up at youth level, ready to burst on to the first-team scene?

Kevin De Bruyne’s decline at Manchester City

Former Liverpool and Tottenham midfielder Jamie Redknapp believes Kevin De Bruyne to be ‘the Premier League’s greatest-ever midfielder’ while, along similar lines, James Westwood of Goal labels him ‘the best playmaker to grace modern English football’.

Well, since arriving from Wolfsburg for a reported fee of £54m in 2015, the Belgian has made 411 appearances for the Citizens, scoring 106 goals and providing 174 assists, winning six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, five EFL Cups and the Champions League.

His tally of 118 means he ranks second in the Premier League for all-time assists, 44 adrift Ryan Giggs’ all-time record, having played 353 fewer matches in the competition.

However, as noted by Richard Martin of Goal, the 33-year-old ‘has reached terminal decline’ and ‘is no longer cut out for the big-time’, underlined by the fact he’s no longer a guaranteed starter in big matches, a fact Sam Lee of the Athletic notes would’ve been ‘unthinkable’ in the past.

So, let’s compare De Bruyne’s season-by-season statistics.

As the table outlines, De Bruyne accumulated at least 3,000 minutes during seven of his first eight seasons at Manchester City, the 2018/19 campaign the sole exception, a year disrupted by a ligament injury in his left knee.

However, both this season and last, the Belgian’s minutes have significantly decreased, albeit he was still able to reach a whopping 18 assists last year, down to just seven this time round, which would be his lowest tally since 2009/10, when he was playing for Genk as a teenager.

Jeff Rueter of the Athletic reports that MLS expansion club San Diego FC are very interested in signing De Bruyne on a free this summer, a move that Joe Lowery of Total Soccer Show labels increasingly likely to happen.

Guardiola has described De Bruyne as “one of the best players in the history of Man City”, underlining that he’ll leave a rather large void should he depart, but do the Sky Blues have a ready-made replacement currently catching the eye at academy level?

Man City’s next wonderkid could replace De Bruyne

Chances are, you’ve never heard of Divine Mukasa, but we’re very confident this will change in the near future.

The 17-year-old joined Manchester City in 2023 from West Ham United, and his performances at youth level have been earning rave reviews.

Analyst Ben Mattinson labels the midfielder a “serious talent”, while scout Gianni Bellasi believes he possesses “excellent spatial awareness”, is “calm under pressure” and “thrives” as a number ten, but is versatile enough to play anywhere across midfield or the forward line.

So, let’s assess the teenager’s statistics.

As the table below shows, Mukasa is something of an assist king, hence the comparisons with De Bruyne, starring at U18 Premier League level; only five players have scored more goals than him in that division this season, one of which is teammate Reigan Heskey, son of Emile, who we wrote about last month.

This has seen Mukasa given opportunities at higher levels, expected to feature in Man City’s UEFA Youth League quarter-final against AZ Alkmaar next month, converting his spot-kick as the Sky Blues ousted Midtjylland on penalties in an earlier round.

So, the 17-year-old may not be ready just yet to be a regular starter for the Citizens’ first team, but is certainly showing signs that he could be the long-term heir to De Bruyne’s throne.

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