Man City have not failed Rayan Aït-Nouri on purpose, but they have never really found out what they bought, and with January seven weeks away that is starting to look like the bigger problem.
The numbers are stark. City have played 10 Premier League games under Enzo Maresca and Rayan Aït-Nouri has not been given a single minute in any of them. His whole season adds up to four appearances and 168 minutes, all of them in the Champions League or the Carabao Cup, and on some matchdays he has not even made the squad.
So the question keeps coming up among City fans: is this a player who has not done enough, or a player who has never been given the chance to show what he can do?
What did City think they were getting?
When City paid Wolves €36.8m plus bonuses for him in the summer of 2025, it looked like a smart bit of business. In his final Premier League season at Molineux he scored four goals and made seven assists, which is a serious return for a left-back.
The profile was clear: a creative, very skilful ball carrier who could play as a left-back or a wing-back, help the forwards from inside positions and defend well enough to be trusted. Left-back had been a problem position at the Etihad for years, and for once City appeared to have a natural one with Premier League miles on the clock and a contract running to 2030.
It has not worked out that way. Last season he made 17 Premier League appearances, many of them from the bench, and he never strung together a proper run in the side.
Three assists in 168 minutes is not nothing
This is the part that frustrates his supporters most. Aït-Nouri has made three assists in his 168 minutes this season. Two came in the Carabao Cup against Norwich, his only start, and nobody will pretend that is the toughest test, but you still have to be in the right place to make the pass, and he was.
He has also had short Champions League cameos against Porto and AEK Athens, and played the second half of the Carabao Cup shootout win over Brighton, replacing Ayyoub Bouaddi at left-back at half-time. Every time he comes on he does something tidy. Then he goes back to the bench, or the stands.
There is a big difference between failing to establish yourself and barely being allowed to play. Aït-Nouri is firmly in the second group.
Why is Aït-Nouri not playing for Man City?
The simple answer is Nico O’Reilly. When City signed Aït-Nouri, O’Reilly was only just breaking through. Since then he has turned into one of the best young players in the country, and his athleticism and link-up play with Jeremy Doku down the left give Maresca something he clearly trusts. It is very hard to argue that O’Reilly should be on the bench.
The second answer is Josko Gvardiol, who often fills in on that side. His form has not been good this season, and that is the strongest case anyone can make for Aït-Nouri getting more chances. But Gvardiol is an established, top-level defender, and most managers in the world would pick him ahead of a player they see as a seven-and-a-half-out-of-ten full-back.
Then there is the way Maresca has talked about him. Earlier this season the Italian said he saw Aït-Nouri as “more winger than full-back”. When Gvardiol came off against Porto, Abdukodir Khusanov moved across to left-back instead, and at Crystal Palace teenager Kaden Braithwaite came on at full-back ahead of him. Weeks later Maresca called him a full-back again and described his battle with O’Reilly and Gvardiol as “just competition between them”. The minutes still have not come.
Wrong place, wrong time?
Part of this is timing. Aït-Nouri arrived in a period of constant change at City, with a new manager now in charge and the left side of the team reshaped more than once around him. Maresca inherited him rather than chose him, and the player still has to convince the man picking the team. If Maresca thought he was better than O’Reilly or Gvardiol, he would be playing. We do not see training, so we cannot judge every call, but the message from the team sheets is clear enough.
Where does he go from here?
Out, almost certainly, and soon. Manchester United, who have just appointed Mauricio Pochettino, want him, and personal terms with United are not an issue. Juventus have also asked about a January loan, with Barcelona watching too.
A move across the city would sting for a lot of City fans, and it would be a very brave one for the player. But it is hard to blame a 25-year-old for wanting to play. He has even dropped out of the Algeria picture, left out of their squad for this international break, and that is exactly the kind of cost a footballer pays for sitting still.
Verdict: City never found out how good Aït-Nouri is
Have City failed him? Not in the sense of treating him badly. O’Reilly earned his place and Gvardiol is Gvardiol. If Aït-Nouri is a seven-and-a-half or an eight, the two players ahead of him are closer to nine.
But that is the problem. He has never had a run of games in a City shirt, so nobody knows his true level. Most footballers get better with repetition and with time alongside the players around them. We saw a glimpse of it with Doku at the Club World Cup, and then it stopped.
If he leaves in January, the honest answer will not be that Aït-Nouri was not good enough for Man City. It will be that City never found out, and for a €36.8m signing with a contract to 2030, that is a poor way for it to end. Ten straight games at left-back would have settled the argument. It is a shame he is unlikely to get them.
