Sport

Trafford Faces an Uncertain Future at City

James Trafford’s return to Manchester City last summer looked like a bold move at the time, and increasingly, it looks like it was the wrong one, too. In fact, the player himself seemed to admit that at the weekend.

Having returned to the City side for their FA Cup fourth round win over Salford City, the 23-year-old admitted he joined the club not expecting the arrival of Gianluigi Donnarumma, which subsequently pushed him down the pecking order.

“Yeah, it’s [being back in the team] been good,” he said. “I didn’t expect the situation [with Donnarumma] to happen but it happened, so just get on with it. So it’s happened so I work very hard every day and see what happens, give it my best shot.”

While Trafford was never explicitly told about being first choice for Pep Guardiola, the departure of Ederson for Galatasaray certainly gave that impression. Donnarumma became available for a discounted £26m as his Paris Saint-Germain contract was running down, and it was a swift late move which brought him to the Etihad. 

Trafford, though, had started the season, and although he’d made a couple of errors, was quickly sidelined by Donnarumma, who went on to be named FIFA’s best goalkeeper for 2025, having helped PSG win the treble last season.

“It is what it is,” he added. “It’s football, you’ve got to keep grafting every day and the games that come, play as hard as you can. This is just another experience to add to my career and it has been a good learning experience.”

“Obviously everyone knows what’s going on with me,” he said. “So I’ve just got to, whenever I play, play as well as I can. I haven’t spoken to them about if that’s enough, but I play as well as I can and train every day very hard and it’s just down to me.”

There are obviously two sides to this story, and both have fair arguments. Though he isn’t asking for it, some believe Trafford deserves sympathy, having been blindsided, while others say, as he does, that competition for places is just part of the game.

But this decision to replace him is part of a much more intriguing development in Pep Guardiola’s tactical approach. Nobody in modern football has had the cultural impact he has in terms of style, with many of his harshest critics claiming he has had a detrimental effect on the game as a whole by promoting things like goalkeepers playing out from the back.

Although Trafford’s primary focus of keeping the ball out of the net improved in the Championship with Burnley last season – keeping 30 clean sheets – he is primarily known for his quality with the ball at his feet. That was why Ederson was signed in 2017, too, and Joe Hart was unceremoniously cut from the side for his lack of skills in that regard. Purely from that perspective,  Trafford felt like natural progression.

There were lots of reports suggesting PSG no longer wanted Donnarumma because he was not the best with his feet. Signing Lucas Chevalier from Lille seemed to back that up. As good the Italian is all round, the fact he struggles in that specific area of his game made linking up with Guardiola of all people particularly jarring.

Of course, the opportunity to sign Donnarumma could have proven too good to turn down, but it has also coincided with City changing approach to be more direct in order to play to Erling Haaland’s strengths. Guardiola has evolved so much that his core principles have changed.

In truth, Trafford felt like a leap of faith for City. It was a huge step for him to be number one at a Premier League title challenger having only just established himself at Burnley. He also rejected a move to Newcastle, which had long been in the offing, for his return home. Eddie Howe has been looking for a ball-playing keeper to replace Nick Pope and it has not been a secret that Trafford is his preferred target. He was said to be extremely keen too, and perhaps those comments are an admission of a poor choice with hindsight.

It does feel like this is already the start of a long goodbye for Trafford at City. Newcastle are still in the market for a goalkeeper and that could be one to revisit.

Ultimately, there are reasons Trafford deserves criticism and sympathy for the way things have played out. But it does feel like he needs to leave in order to get the best from his career, with England likely to be a big focus for him in the not so distant future.