There has been growing media speculation about the potential of Kyle Walker leaving Manchester City this summer, which would bring to an end a six-year stay that included five league titles, six domestic cups, and a Champions League.
Walker is 33 and might be seeking a new challenge, or potentially one last big payday. He has had some injury issues over the last two seasons and failed to manage 30 Premier League appearances for City in any of the last three seasons, but he’s still an important piece of Guardiola’s puzzle.
Walker has one thing that no other defender at the club has, elite-level pace. He is a flawed defender, who is prone to errors, but he makes up for most of them with his incredible recovery burst. That has proved vital for City, particularly in Champions League ties against elite dribblers.
Guardiola has begun to use Walker more as a situational option rather than a regular start in recent years and that has worked for City, but is it what Walker wants?
If he’s seeking more regular football, a new challenge, or a big bag of money, then it’s not surprising that he’s looking elsewhere.
The club most strongly linked to him is Bayern Munich, who do have a need for a right back and would offer Walker the chance to continue operating at the highest level, guarantee him trophies galore, and potentially reunite him with his former Spurs teammate Harry Kane this summer.
Some reports have suggested that City might be open to letting him leave, and that they might try to replace him with a player currently at Bayern in Benjamin Pavard.
The 27-year-old French international has spent the last four seasons in Munich and, like Walker, has one year remaining on his current contract. Bayern are reportedly open to letting him leave and he was linked with a move to Liverpool earlier in the window.
On paper it could be a deal that works for City, Pavard is six years younger and would command lower wages than the Englishman. He is a player who is very comfortable in possession, which always fits well with a Guardiola team, but dig a little deeper and it doesn’t appear a favourable deal.
Pavard is a vastly inferior defensive player to Walker and he is also wildly inconsistent. The reason Bayern are searching for a new right-back is because Pavard has not impressed since joining from Stuttgart in 2019. Having won the 2018 World Cup with France, he was a player sought by many but Bayern beat the rest of Europe’s elite to punch and secured his signature.
Unfortunately for the player, and the club, Pavard isn’t really a right-back. He wants to be a centre-back but he isn’t really one of them either. He’s a tweener. A player best suited to the right side of a back three, which could work at City, but then his defensive issues need to be considered.
He also doesn’t have Walker’s pace, which would be the biggest issue. In a back three with players like Ruben Dias, John Stones or Nathan Ake, Pavard would lack what City would need from him most. Recovery pace.
City would also likely have to pay more for Pavard, than Bayern would for Walker and while the wages would be lower, the cost of keeping Walker would be less overall even on a new contract, and the benefits of having his pace in the squad outweigh anything Pavard could bring to the equation.
