Sport
Is James Trafford Ready to Replace Ederson at Man City?
The signing of Ederson was a turning point for Pep Guardiola in the early days of his Manchester City tenure. Guardiola’s first season as City boss was a challenge, not least in between the posts where Claudio Bravo struggled to find consistency. Ederson subsequently arrived for £35m and Guardiola never looked back, establishing Manchester City as a formidable force.
Eight years on, there’s a chance Ederson could be on his way out of the Etihad Stadium with Galatasaray reported to be interested in the Brazilian goalkeeper. These reports have coincided with claims that Manchester City are weighing up an offer for James Trafford who is also wanted by Newcastle United.
Trafford is highly rated across the board and might well be a future England number one. However, the 22-year-old is still developing and is perhaps too error prone to be the starting goalkeepers for one of the best teams in the Premier League. Is Trafford truly ready to replace Ederson for Manchester City?
Ederson isn’t just a good goalkeeper in terms of his shot-stopping ability. Indeed, the Brazilian is central to the way Manchester City construct moves from deep with Ederson one of the best ball-playing goalkeepers the game has ever seen. Without him, City would be a very different team, certainly as a possession outfit.
It’s not just that Ederson can play a short-range pass out from the back. He can also play directly into central midfield and even into the wide areas where Manchester City can quickly move into the attack. This is a quality that prevents City from getting bogged down inside the own half. It makes them almost impossible to press high up the pitch.
Trafford has some of those same qualities. He came through the Manchester City academy as a teenager and trained alongside Ederson until 2023 when he left for Burnley. At Turf Moor, Trafford played under Vincent Kompany who emboldened Trafford to get on the ball and construct possession sequences from deep.
In his one and only Premier League season to date as a starting goalkeeper, Trafford was sometimes made to look out of his depth. Burnley suffered relegation back to the Championship and Trafford made a number of blunders. This, however, was a worthwhile learning experience for a young goalkeeper.
Last season, as Burnley continued the yo-yo trend by winning promotion back to the Premier League, Trafford performed with more maturity. He looked assured. There were fewer mistakes when playing out from the back with the 23-year-old now seemingly ready for another crack at the top division of English football.
At this stage of his development, Trafford needs to be playing first team football. Previously, the idea of a return to the Etihad Stadium appeared to be a non-starter for this reason with Ederson the undisputed number one. Now, though, Manchester City might be considering a goalkeeping change that would open the door for Trafford.
2025 has already been a transformational year for City. They spent the best part of £200m on transfers in January with Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reiss all joining. This rebuild has continued this summer with Rayan Cherki, Tijani Reijnders and Rayan Ait-Nouri arriving before the start of the Club World Cup.
More work must be done to fully prepare Manchester City for the 2025/26 season with some players sure to leave the club – see James McAtee, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva, all of whom have been linked with a move away from the Etihad Stadium. The replacement of Ederson, however, would be the most significant piece of business City could do this summer.
