Kevin De Bruyne deserves a statue but not a special contract! Man City should accept any big-money bid from Saudi Arabia for brilliant but injury-prone Belgian

City's talismanic midfielder is into the last 18 months of his contract and will turn 33 in June, which could give the club an uncomfortable dilemma when it comes to discussing his future, particularly if he asks for a new contract to ward off the interest from Saudi Arabia and potentially Major League Soccer.

To many, particularly the 50,000 supporters who rose to their feet to welcome De Bruyne back from injury in January, City giving one of their best ever players a bumper new deal is a no-brainer.

However, the club have an unwritten policy when it comes to contract negotiations to players into their thirties, which in theory prevents them from offering long-term deals. The policy is intended to prevent them paying high salaries for years-on-end to individuals who are no longer worth it.

They are not the only club to do it. Bayern Munich only offer 12-month contracts to existing players who are past the age of 30. And notwithstanding their current season, it has served the Bavarians pretty well over the years.

City's stance has led to them parting with some players before they would have liked to, most notably Ilkay Gundogan. Yet it has also helped City remain ahead of their rivals financially and maintain harmony in the dressing room.

There have been some exceptions, such as offering 31-year-old Riyad Mahrez a two-year contract in 2022. That turned out to be a good move as just a year later, when the Algerian would have been able to leave on a free transfer had he not signed the new deal, Mahrez ended up being sold to Al-Ahli for £30m ($38m).

The main exception is Kyle Walker, who signed a three-year contract last summer at the age of 33. City were prepared to be flexible in that instance as Walker had a serious offer on the table from Bayern Munich and were wary of losing another senior player at the same time as parting with Gundogan.

So far it is working out well, with Walker captaining the team and playing with even more consistency than last season, despite the turmoil in his private life. Nonetheless, City would be better off keeping Walker as the exception rather than making him the catalyst to end the policy. Even if it means parting ways with De Bruyne in 2025 or even sooner.

Make no mistake about it, De Bruyne is the one of best players City have ever had, if not the greatest. The numbers speak for themselves. In 367 games for City, the Belgian has scored 98 goals and set up a further 161.

Despite being a midfielder, he is City's fourth all-time top scorer and is two goals from leapfrogging Shaun Goater into third. If he stays the length of his current contract until June 2025 and stays relatively injury-free, he could quite possibly overtake Raheem Sterling in second on 131 goals, even if he will never unseat Sergio Aguero on 260.

He is the third-top provider of assists in the Premier League with 106, just six away from overtaking Cesc Fabregas in second, although overhauling record-holder Ryan Giggs on 162 might be a stretch. However, De Bruyne has amassed his tally in far fewer games than his predecessors, reaching 100 assists in 237 games, 56 fewer than Fabregas.

There is also a case to be made that he is the greatest player the Premier League has ever seen, especially in the last few years.

"He's been the best player in the Premier League for the last four, five years," Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports in January. "He's been the difference for Manchester City, when you think of how often they've pipped Liverpool in terms of league titles. If you put him in a Liverpool shirt then I think they would win the league, that's how dominant he is."

De Bruyne, however, knows that his value is even greater and, when negotiating his last contract with City, hired an analytics firm to demonstrate his worth to the club, who were offering him a lower salary than his previous deal. Analytics FC found that De Bruyne was the best player in Europe according to its attacking contribution metric, which considers the impact - positive and negative - of each touch a player has in a match.

This was a time when Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were still at their peak, playing for Juventus and Barcelona respectively. De Bruyne was able to show through the data that not only would City be far worse off without him, but that he could strengthen a European rival if he did get what he thought he was worth and boost their chances of winning the Champions League over City.

City eventually saw the logic and must be glad they agreed to pay De Bruyne what he was asking. In the two seasons after signing his last contract in 2021, he scored 29 goals while adding 46 assists, helping City to a further two Premier League titles, the FA Cup and the Champions League which they had craved for so long.

He may have got injured during the final against Inter but he had been crucial to getting them there, slamming in the equaliser against Real Madrid in the semi-final first leg. He had also stepped up in what was effectively the title decider against Arsenal, scoring twice.

However, the hamstring injury sustained in Istanbul may have spelled the beginning of the end for De Bruyne, at least in the long term. De Bruyne admitted at the time that he had been "struggling for two months but it was all small ruptures". During the final that same hamstring snapped.

It was a cruel ending of the season for De Bruyne, who had also been forced off during the 2021 final with a head injury. There was a difference this time, though. In 2021, City had ended up losing the final to Chelsea. In 2023, they won, being able to replace De Bruyne with Phil Foden with little drop-off in their overall play, eventually beating Inter thanks to a strike from Rodri.

The Belgian missed some of City's pre-season but started their opening game against Burnley, only for the same hamstring to give way again in the 23rd minute, forcing him to undergo surgery and miss five months of action. "I had three hamstrings [injuries] in a row but they were nowhere near the same place. I had so much scar tissue that it could snap at any moment," De Bruyne would later admit.

City were naturally distraught for De Bruyne but once again Foden filled in and ended up seizing on the opportunity to reassert his own place in the team. City won their first six games of the season without De Bruyne and by the time he returned in January they were still well in touch with Premier League title rivals Arsenal and Liverpool. They had also steamrolled their Champions League group, winning six games out of six.

They had lost three Premier League games and been knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Newcastle but one could argue that those defeats actually underlined the importance of Rodri, who was suspended for all of them, rather than De Bruyne. The Belgian has been excellent since returning to action in January, notching two goals and six assists despite starting just four matches.

Against Newcastle, he proved the difference between a probable defeat at Newcastle and a priceless victory for the title race. He also contributed to every goal in the 3-1 win at Copenhagen. But it is not controversial to say he is no longer as pivotal to City's fortunes as he was when he was negotiating his last contract in 2021.

There are also fresh concerns about De Bruyne's fitness levels, which will naturally make City more cautious about spending a fortune to tie him down at the club for several more years. Guardiola had repeatedly stressed the need to tread carefully with De Bruyne since his return but his frank response to a question about why the Belgian had remained on the bench in the 1-0 win over Brentford last week set alarm bells ringing.

"He has niggles in his hamstring area and I didn't want to take any risk with him," the coach said, before quickly adding: "He's OK, he's OK, it was more about prevention. He said he didn't feel comfortable and the doctors said not to take a risk."

Before the trip to Bournemouth, Guardiola confirmed the Belgian was "not 100 percent", although he introduced him for the final six minutes at the Vitality Stadium. It may prove to be nothing to worry about, but it is surely concerning that City have to be so careful with him just a few months after he underwent surgery to treat the problem.

There is little concern at boardroom level about De Bruyne's future at the club despite fresh reports of interest from Saudi Arabia. A source told GOAL that "no-one is panicking" following the reports and there are no contract talks on the horizon for now, with club and player both at ease after working together since 2016, when De Bruyne moved to City from Wolfsburg.

There is a level of intrigue about the interest from the Saudi Pro League (SPL) as its sporting director Michael Emenalo helped negotiate De Bruyne's move from Genk to Chelsea in 2012, when he was technical director of the Blues.

However, according to The Athletic, De Bruyne and his family are reluctant to move to the Gulf kingdom and would favour a move to MLS over the SPL. The same report states that De Bruyne's initial goal, before hearing of the interest from Saudi, was to negotiate a new contract with City before retiring at the club around 2026, when he would be 35.

If a short-term deal on favourable terms for all could be agreed, then City would surely be happy to keep De Bruyne around as long as he wanted. His ability to win matches in a flash of brilliance can never be underestimated, while his experience and mentality can inspire the rest of the squad.

But with his powers starting to slowly wane with age and creaking doubts about his fitness not going away, there is no need for City to break the bank and their wage structure to keep him around forever.

And if a big-money offer from the SPL arrives that allows City to significantly reinvest in their squad and build for the future, then they should take it.