Man City's newly-imposed transfer rule prevented Arsenal from beating Barcelona to Ilkay Gundogan

Manchester City’s newly imposed transfer rule may have prevented Arsenal from signing Ilkay Gundogan this summer.

This summer, Gundogan left City on a free transfer having helped the club to a historic treble, joining Barcelona on a three-year deal.

However, it has been claimed that the midfielder was pushing to stay at City on a long-term deal, while he had also been linked to an Arsenal move before ultimately joining the Catalan giants.

On the move, the German told Bild: "I’m honest, and many people don’t know this, in the end, it wasn’t about a year or two.

"There was no problem with the running time. City waited a relatively long time until the talks really intensified. If this had happened a little earlier, the situation would have been different.

"So in the end it was the perfect ending, it couldn’t have come at a better time. It was also my childhood dream to play for FC Barcelona."

Of course, it is likely City would have preferred Gundogan to move to Barcelona over Arsenal, a club they challenged for the Premier League title last season.

Indeed, according to a Football Insider report from April, City have decided not to sell any more first team players to Arsenal.

It was claimed that even if the Gunners make sizeable offers for City players, the club will still refuse to allow them to leave.

The alleged stance is understandable, given Arsenal went toe-to-toe with City for much of the 2022/23 campaign, with the club likely to challenge at the Premier League summit for the foreseeable future.

Indeed, last summer City seemed desperate to assist Arsenal in their pursuit of the title, with Pep Guardiola selling players to Mikel Arteta’s outfit.

Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus moved from City to Arsenal last year, with both playing a key role in the north Londoners title challenge.