Manuel Akanji likely to become next permanent Manchester City departure

After disappointment for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola in 2024/25, it was quite the summer at the Etihad Stadium as some pretty major changes were made to first-team options, alongside slight tactical changes placing the squad more on the front front as opposed to a more dominating possession style.

With plenty of faces leaving such as club legend Kevin de Bruyne, City saw a new breed of players arrive with the likes of Tijjani Reijnders coming in and even the very late arrival of goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

In fact, many would have been hard pushed to believe the Italian in particular would be a ‘Pep Guardiola player’, despite his obvious talents between the sticks, even if you regularly follow the transfer betting odds.

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Guardiola’s decision to change and modernise the group after our earlier struggles has already been justified in many ways. City look far more threatening offensively and when the squad get on the front foot, they also look far tighter at the back once more. 10 games into the 2025/26 Premier League campaign, City have six wins and a positive 12 goal difference.

There are plenty of improvements that can still be made though as newbies settle in and adjust to the English top-flight, but things are looking positive for fans again, even if there is still a six-point gap to Arsenal – who occupy top spot.

When you look at some players that remain on Manchester City’s books, an educated guess would be that City may see further changes to their playing personnel come the New Year and the opening of the January transfer window. Even if that does not happen, fans can certainly expect further changes next summer.

One of those will likely be the permanent departure of Manuel Akanji. The 30-year-old Swiss international first arrived at City in the summer of 2022 from German side Borussia Dortmund for a reported fee of £16.7 million.

In his couple of years with the club, he went on to make well over 100 appearances across all competitions and was integral to Pep Guardiola’s plans. Having featured during the Club World Cup tournament over the summer, Akanji moved on to Italian Serie A side Inter Milan on a loan spell before the summer transfer deadline.

Manuel Akanji has made 11 appearances for the Italians and has firmly established himself in their first-team group. But speaking after their weekend victory over Hellas Verona, the defender remained coy on his future, stating that the club ‘seem happy’, but it was very much still a ‘we’ll see what happens’ when it comes to the option to buy in the loan agreement.

The simple fact he is already Cristian Chivu’s most used centre-half this season speaks volumes as to how he has settled in and although the permanent clause will be triggered on conditions, it has already led to tongues wagging that they could activate the clause earlier.

The stance on Manuel Akanji and the defender’s expected permanent switch to Inter also coincides with the Italian club’s existing defenders in Francesco Acerbi, Stefan De Vrij and Matteo Darmian all being out of contract at the end of the ongoing campaign.