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The window for Oscar Bobb at Manchester City appears to have closed and Claudio Echeverri has work to do to avoid the same
If you want to look at how small the window of opportunity can be at Manchester City, take a look at Oscar Bobb. The Norwegian worked his way into the first team squad in 2023, scored one of the most iconic goals in Pep Guardiola's decade at the club, and looked set for a big breakthrough on the eve of the 2024/25 season when he suffered a leg break in training.
Maybe things would have gone south anyway given the whole team struggled that season, but it was particularly cruel on Bobb that injury robbed him of the chance to make the biggest impact when he had never looked better. When he returned later that season, things weren't quite the same.
That has also been the case this season. After a flying start at Wolves, Bobb's form took a dip and Pep Guardiola has preferred other players not just in his starting XI but also his squad - with the 22-year-old left out completely on more than one occasion.
If his position wasn't vulnerable enough, City are pouncing in the January market to sign Antoine Semenyo for around £65m. Further down the pecking order goes Bobb and closer to the exit door; he is talented and young enough that he can still have a fabulous career, but his time at the Etihad looks up for now.
Such uncertainty should remind Claudio Echeverri that it can be very difficult to come back from one false step - even one that is not of your own making. Echeverri arrived from River Plate in January 2025 and the talented midfielder made his City debut as a substitute in the FA Cup final.
If that did not make clear how highly Guardiola rated him, he then went with the team to the Club World Cup and started against Al Ain before suffering an unfortunate injury. City kept him longer than they needed to in part because he was impressing with the first team but had found other options for him on loan for this season that they felt were better than Leverkusen - the preference of him and his team.
City agreed, and the Leverkusen move has been a disaster - so bad that the sporting director of the Bundesliga side announced the move was being cancelled while the signatures on the paperwork were still wet. Echeverri had been unveiled as the No.9 but had barely more than 90 minutes in the first half of the season and a premature exit was agreed as the best for everyone.
And so on Echeverri goes to Girona, who badly wanted him in the summer and where City would have ideally liked him to pick then. Echeverri will have at least six months there to press his case for Argentina's World Cup plans and to show that he has got what it takes to make it back in Manchester with Guardiola.
Having seen how quickly the door can close on you at City, Echeverri has to push back if he is not to be nudged towards it by failing to prove City wrong about his development. How high a price he pays for the Leverkusen decision will depend on what he can accomplish at Girona.
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