Manchester City have seen numerous players join the club since Pep Guardiola was appointed as their manager back in 2016.
One of Guardiola's earliest recruits for the Manchester club was midfielder Ilkay Gundogan, who joined the side from Borussia Dortmund for a fee of £20m in the summer of 2016.
Since then, the German has gone on to make 249 appearances in a City shirt across all competitions.
In those appearances, the midfielder has scored 47 goals and delivered 33 assists along the way.
To further highlight how prominent the World Cup winner has been for City over the past few years, only Raheem Sterling (288) and Kevin De Bruyne (260) have made more appearances for the club under Guardiola than Gundogan (248).
With the 31-year-old's current contract at the Etihad Stadium set to expire in the summer of 2023, the midfielder has already spoken about his potential next career step, with a move to America or Turkey in mind.
Taking this into account, the upcoming summer transfer window could give the Citizens an ideal opportunity to bring in a potential long-term replacement for their German midfield star.
Having been recently linked with a move for Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong, he could well be the right figure to come in and fill Gundogan's boots once he calls time on his spell with City.
Since joining the Spanish club back in 2019 from Ajax for a fee of £65m, the Dutchman has gone on to make 137 appearances, scoring 13 goals and delivering 17 assists in the process.
Labelled as a "dynamic" player in the past by his current manager Xavi, the La Liga giants have reportedly put a price tag of £58m on their midfield talent.
To compare him with Gundogan from their individual domestic seasons, while De Jong may not have as many attempts on goal as the City star, he has a higher percentage of shots on target (41.2%) than him (31.9%), meaning he is more clinical in front of goal.
In terms of his passing, the Dutchman also trumps Gundogan with a higher percentage of passes completed.
While De Jong has five more league games under his belt than the German, from a defensive point of view, he's made more tackles, pressures, blocks, interceptions and clearances this term.
Taking all of this into account, not only could City and Guardiola find their ideal heir for Gundogan with the 24-year-old, but they may also blow the Etihad faithful away by securing the Barcelona star's signature this summer.