Ilkay Gundogan’s wife revealed to Mail Sport earlier this year how much she was missing life in Manchester.

The German midfielder appears to be on the verge of a return to Manchester City with a ‘deal in place’ to bring him back, as per Fabrizio Romano. 

City’s former captain looks set to join on a one-year deal, returning to the side he skippered to the treble in 2022-23.

In an exclusive chat with Mail Sport in February, Sara Gundogan said she was ‘sad’ to leave for Barcelona in the first place. 

‘When I was in Manchester, my whole life was (originally) around football,’ she said. 

‘My friends were football, the people I met through my husband, and then I didn’t have anything that was just my world outside of that.

‘And I’m a social person. So it took me a bit of time, but I made it friends and it was really nice.

‘After making friends, I was really happy. I had my own life and routine in Manchester and I have one of my best friends there.’

Discussing the difficulty of swapping England for Spain, she added: ‘Over the years I would see friends moving.

‘So it’s something that’s always around in football and you would suddenly just have a phone call from them telling you they’re going to another country.

‘So, it’s always around, it’s always happening, but I didn’t imagine that it would be us and when it’s you it’s big a shock.

‘It’s always sad, especially because you make friends, you’re happy somewhere, you build your life and then you have to leave all the people you love.’

However, things were sometimes tricky off the pitch, with Sara infamously criticising Manchester on occasions, which included one rant about the quality of the food in October 2022.

She posted on her Instagram story: ‘Sorry, I’m sad to be honest but nothing. I tried [sic] so bad to find a good restaurant but horrible food everywhere.

‘Can’t find a real Italian or good sushi or just fresh food… everything frozen. Restaurants here are focus [sic] on making money with drinks and shot [sic] like nightclubs, not quality food. Maybe in London but in Manchester nothing. I’m sorry.’

The move comes as a shock with City maintaining all summer that they are happy with the current squad and any transfer business is likely to come from an unexpected developing situation later in the window.

The potential of Gundogan departing Catalonia only arose over the weekend, with the 33-year-old already having interest from clubs in Turkey and Saudi Arabia – including Al Nassr, home of Cristiano Ronaldo, Aymeric Laporte and Sadio Mane.

Guardiola intimated last week that he was hoping for a reinforcement following Julian Alvarez’s move to Atletico Madrid, while the Premier League champions have struggled to find a suitable back-up for Rodri in defensive midfield.

Mateo Kovacic deputised in that position during the 2-0 win at Chelsea on Sunday and Gundogan would also fit the bill of being capable of playing anywhere in central midfield.

The Germany international was Guardiola’s first signing as manager and spent seven years at City, ending as captain during the Treble campaign in 2023.

Gundogan met up with his old teammates and manager before a pre-season friendly between the two sides in Orlando just over a fortnight ago.