Manchester City are not welcoming loan offers for James McAtee this month but his hat-trick at the weekend is likely to ensure interest in him until the end of the transfer window.
McAtee’s situation at the Etihad Stadium is fascinating on and off the pitch. With City having struggled so badly at the end of 2024, winning just once in 13 matches (a patch that may not yet be over despite three victories in a row), one big mystery has been manager Pep Guardiola’s sparse use of McAtee.
Contract talks had been held at the end of the summer after Guardiola and director of football Txiki Begiristain convinced McAtee he would get a chance this season, but no concrete offer has been made. With his deal expiring in 18 months, game time still limited and City pursuing Frankfurt forward Omar Marmoush, it is no wonder that clubs are circling.
The 22-year-old, who joined the City academy at 10, was selected against Salford City in the FA Cup on Saturday but that was his first start, and only fifth appearance, since the Carabao Cup game at Tottenham Hotspur at the end of October, City’s first defeat of the season and the first game of their dire run.
There has long been a clamour among the fans for him to be given a proper run in the team, for many reasons. Primarily because most of his team-mates have been either injured, in poor form and/or exhausted, but also because of Guardiola’s pre-season claims that he would get opportunities.
In the 12 matches following that game at Spurs, though, he came off the bench only twice, for 21 minutes against Feyenoord and one minute against Nottingham Forest.
A breakthrough may have happened against Leicester City on Boxing Day — he came on with 24 minutes to go and inspired City’s second goal, earning positive reviews from Guardiola and convincing those who had wanted to see him much earlier that they were right all along.
“I know it’s unfair to say because I asked him to stay and I didn’t give him the minutes he deserves,” Guardiola said afterwards. “Yeah, that’s fair enough, it’s right, but I always had the feeling that this guy could play with us.”
Even so, he was back on the bench for the unconvincing win against West Ham United a week later and only brought on with 10 minutes to go, after City went 4-1 up.
McAtee’s limited opportunities have become a hot topic among City fans and for the journalists who cover the team, with essentially everybody reaching a consensus that he deserves to play more — but at half-time against Salford, it had looked like Guardiola’s reasons for not using him, whatever they are, were more understandable.
The midfielder had finally been given a start against a League Two side but he had struggled to get into the game and the opportunity was passing him by.
“I was quite frustrated in the first half that I wasn’t seeing much of the ball,” he told BBC Sport afterwards.
By full time, though, he had scored his first goal for the club and added two more.
“When the first one went in, I was relieved and then my confidence was up and the ball kept coming to me and I kept scoring,” he continued.
Guardiola, of course, had noticed the first-half struggles too.
“I’m not going to deny how happy I am,” the manager said in his press conference. “It’s not easy to score a hat-trick but he can play better. The first half was not his best.”
The City boss also echoed his praise from after the Leicester match, when he hailed his emergence through the club’s academy at the same time as several other top players who have since shown their promise for other clubs.
“The generation of Morgan Rogers, Cole Palmer, Liam Delap, Romeo Lavia, Jadon Sancho,” he continued. “All the players that play really well in the Premier League. “He was a main player there and captain and a City fan.”
The worry for City fans now, and possibly others within the club, is that McAtee follows in the footsteps of those players by shining elsewhere.
City’s poor run has thrown almost everything at the club under the microscope, including the quality of the current players, Guardiola’s crisis management, the recruitment strategy and their sales of young talent.
Those had previously been lauded due to the large sums brought in and, it must be said, there had not really been room in the team even for Palmer, given Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez found it hard enough to get the game time they would have wanted as City pushed for the treble in 2023, the year Palmer left.
James McAtee celebrates scoring against Salford with Phil Foden (James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
But it will have been painful for the club to have to plan an overhaul of the squad over the coming transfer windows when those exact players that Guardiola has mentioned — with the possible exception of Sancho — would be perfect for them.
Bundesliga teams are showing an interest in McAtee this month and, given there is no contract on the table, it is hard to imagine this latest academy graduate going the Foden route rather than that of Palmer, Lavia or Delap.
McAtee has already shown his determination to play by pushing through consecutive loans, both to Sheffield United, and a season of watching from the sidelines at City even when they are in by far the lowest period of the Guardiola era is unlikely to convince him that his future lies at the Etihad.
Only a sustained run in the team is likely to keep him at the club. Given Guardiola’s comments about his ability and suitability for the team, you would assume they want him to stay.
January could be an interesting month for McAtee, then: it may be that a serious transfer offer comes before his next start. If so, what then?
(Top photo: Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
