Manchester City do not have a settled centre-back pairing yet, but the picture for next season is starting to sharpen. Marc Guéhi and Abdukodir Khusanov started the FA Cup final together and were trusted with the big games in the run-in. Joško Gvardiol is back in the mix after his contract extension, while Nathan Aké is into the final year of his deal and not expected to be offered a renewal.

Guehi and Khusanov have already moved into big-game territory

The clearest sign of how City are viewing the pair is what they were asked to do late in the season. The club reporter at Manchester Evening News said the pair started the FA Cup final together despite the return to fitness of Rúben Dias and the now departed Stones, while they were trusted with the big games in the run-in.

The form data backs that up. Guehi has four full-match starts across his latest five games, with a peak rating of 7.9 in the Premier League while playing 94 minutes in two of those matches and 93 in another. Khusanov has gone through a similar stretch of heavy usage, including 99 minutes against World Cup opposition and a 7.2 peak rating in the club run-in.

That is not a depth-chart footnote. It looks like the start of a hierarchy.

Returning options and the squeeze on Aké

Gvardiol's situation matters because City are not just adding from below, they are getting a major piece back. He agreed a contract extension at the Etihad after interest from Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, and even with only one recent appearance in the data set, the club clearly see him as part of the longer-term core.

Aké is the opposite case. He has one recent senior appearance of 13 minutes, and the expectation is that he will not be offered a renewal. That leaves City with decisions to make around the middle of the defence, even before Vitor Reis, Juma Bah and the academy options are folded in.

Reis is the expensive one in that group, costing £29.6million when he joined in January 2025. Bah has already had a senior loan spell, Alleyne has been parachuted into the first team amid a defensive crisis, and Hermann Malonga is set to remain with City's Academy next term. City have plenty of bodies. The harder part is deciding which of them are actually in the frame.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →