Jeremy Doku Signs New Deal with Manchester City Until 2031
Jeremy Doku has become the latest pillar of Manchester City’s next era, committing his prime years to the club with a new deal that runs to 2031.
The Belgium winger, signed from Rennes for £55.4m in 2023, is set to have his extension confirmed next week, with City sources indicating the 24-year-old has agreed to stay long term at the Etihad Stadium. It is another decisive move in a summer that has been quiet in volume, but loud in intent.
Doku at the heart of City’s reset
Doku’s first full season in England was not just promising; it was productive. Forty-eight appearances, eight goals, and a central role in a side that lifted both the FA Cup and Carabao Cup in Pep Guardiola’s farewell campaign. His speed, direct running and willingness to take on defenders gave City a different gear when games became tight or stale.
Now he joins Phil Foden, Josko Gvardiol and Abdukodir Khusanov in signing fresh terms this summer. Four young core players, all locked in. For a club accused at times of constant churn, this is a deliberate anchoring of the squad around a new generation.
The message is clear: Guardiola may have gone, but the project is not pausing.
Gonzalez fights for his place
While Doku settles his future, Nico Gonzalez is still fighting to fully establish his. The midfielder arrived from Porto for £50m last January, a statement signing at the time, but his first full campaign has been uneven.
Forty-one appearances in all competitions tell one story. The other is the rhythm of those minutes: in the team, then out again, never quite undisputed. His most vivid contribution came under the Wembley arch, a stunning winner in the FA Cup semi-final against Southampton that briefly made him look indispensable.
He has featured in both of City’s pre-season games so far, against Inter Milan and a K-League XI, and talk had begun to swirl that he could be moved on after just 19 months. Gonzalez is having none of it.
"I'm happy here," he said when asked about his future. "I don't want to leave and I think the club wants me to stay. I haven't seen anything but I'm happy here.
"When I play I think I do a really good job. A good example was the semi-final of the FA Cup when I did a good match. Every chance I got, I tried my best.
"The final of the FA Cup I was out but we won so it was an amazing day for me. If we win, I'm happy. My dream is to win trophies.
"If I don't play any matches and we win the Champions League next year, I will be so happy."
It is a revealing stance. Gonzalez wants minutes, of course, but he is prepared to scrap for them inside a squad that expects to compete for every trophy on offer.
One blockbuster signing, and a lot of patience
As the second week of August approaches, City’s incoming business looks surprisingly lean on the surface. Only one senior signing is expected to walk straight into Enzo Maresca’s first XI: Elliot Anderson.
The England international has arrived from Nottingham Forest for a club-record £116m, a fee that underlines how highly City rate him and how central he is to their plans. At 23, he looks the natural heir to Bernardo Silva, who left at the end of his contract and has joined Real Madrid.
Around that headline deal, the activity has been more nuanced. Teenage winger Jeremy Monga has been added from Leicester with an eye on academy minutes. Goalkeeper Pierce Charles and winger Mathys Detourbet have both been signed and immediately sent out on loan, development pieces rather than instant solutions.
Maresca, speaking on Tuesday from South Korea, where City are based for pre-season, admitted the club still have work to do. Director of football Hugo Viana and chief executive Ferran Soriano have flown out to join the touring party, and the Italian did not hide the reality: "we need to something" in the market.
The sense inside the club, though, is far from panic. Senior figures insist they are "relaxed" and have full "trust" in their transfer strategy. The lack of late-summer frenzy is not an accident; it is a consequence of business done earlier than most.
Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi, both signed in January, were long-term summer targets whose deals were simply accelerated. Their early impact has strengthened the belief that City are ahead of schedule rather than behind it.
Young, hungry, and not finished yet
Look at the squad and the pattern emerges quickly. It is young. It is energetic. It is already proven. Last season’s domestic cup double came with a core that is still developing, not one clinging to its last peak.
Vitor Reis, the 20-year-old Brazilian, is back from a season-long loan at Girona and is expected to be part of the first-team group. Doku is tied down. Foden is tied down. Gvardiol is tied down. Khusanov is tied down. Anderson has walked through the door at the peak of his potential curve.
There are, however, fault lines that could reshape the picture in a hurry.
Rodri, the midfield metronome and arguably City’s most irreplaceable outfield player, has yet to sign a new contract. Interest from Real Madrid and Barcelona is real, and his situation hangs over the club’s medium-term planning. Lose him, and no amount of calm language from the hierarchy will disguise the scale of the problem.
Tijjani Reijnders looks more likely to move on, with Nottingham Forest among the clubs keen to tempt him away. On the flanks, Savinho is open to leaving, with Tottenham exploring a move, although that interest has yet to solidify into a deal.
City’s stance is simple: if someone significant goes, someone significant comes in.
Targets on the horizon
Behind the scenes, the recruitment team are working through a familiar list of names. There is interest in Chelsea’s Pedro Neto, a winger whose profile fits City’s preference for technically sharp, tactically flexible wide players.
Talks continue over Lille’s Moroccan midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi, another young option who could deepen Maresca’s choices in the middle of the pitch. Marseille goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli is also on the radar, a potential addition to reshape the goalkeeping department.
None of those deals are over the line yet. None of them have triggered the kind of noise that usually surrounds City when they move. But that is the mood around the Etihad this summer: less noise, more control.
Doku’s new contract is part of that. It locks in a player who embodies the direction of travel – fast, fearless, entering his prime – and signals to the rest of Europe that City are not in transition so much as reloading.
The trophies last season came with a side still learning to play without Guardiola on the touchline. The next ones, if they come, will belong to Maresca’s City. And with Doku and his generation now signed up for the long haul, the real question is not whether this squad is ready, but how far it can push the ceiling.
