Manchester City are lacking in goalkeeper cover right now
Pep Guardiola has called on the Premier League to relax their rules on emergency loan deals after losing Claudio Bravo to a long term achilles tendon injury on Monday.
In his absence, Aro Muric, the Montenegro Under-21 international, has been recalled from a season’s loan at Dutch side NAC Breda to be back-up to Ederson while academy graduate Daniel Grimshaw will be the third senior goalkeeper for the time being.
Muric and Grimshaw have one senior appearance between them; far from ideal for Pep Guardiola should Ederson get injured or suspended.
City let Joe Hart and Angus Gunn leave to join Burnley and Southampton respectively before the English transfer window closed on August 9th, under the assumption that Bravo and Ederson would be enough cover for the season.
Without the option of an emergency loan, City were only left with the option of signing a free agent. Diego Cavalieri, 35, who joined Crystal Palace in January but left in the summer having not played for the Eagles was one option.
However City would still have required from the Premier League to sign a free agent and after the league granted them permission to recall Muric from his loan spell, it’s unlikely that City would have been allowed to sign a free agent too.
Pep Guardiola believes these rules need loosening, as injury crises can occur quickly and unexpectedly.
“Yes. Not just for goalkeepers but for when there are big injuries to players. If we had not been allowed to bring back Aro, I don’t know what would have happened,” the City manager said.
“But the rules are the rules. Maybe the federation can think about that when there are long injuries and it is still the period where the European window is open. Then maybe you could do it.
“Here it is closed, and it is good that the competition starts with the whole squad [in place]. But maybe we could think about that, especially when the injuries are five or six months.”
