We can afford to help him and we should.Wish you where my boss
It's not like he's some random player we drafted in three years ago from Anderlecht or Girona (or wherever) just to fill a gap in the squad, he's a very special case who deserves grace and time from the club and the fans. He's been with City since he was a child, has supported City all his life, is from Stockport/Manchester, is our most successful academy product by miles, and along with Nico O'Reilly is the biggest advert for our entire youth system.
He's been at City, playing for us at all levels, since he was four years old. He progressed and progressed and progressed every single year for City between 2004 and 2024, became our most decorated academy player, and was an essential part of the greatest team English football has ever seen. Two years of patchy form, brought on by very visible physical and mental health problems, is nowhere near enough to sever that kind of relationship.
I'm not saying we need to give him a massive pay rise. I'd say keep him on the same wages with performance-based incentives to increase his wages. But he's one of our own in every sense of the word and, as a consequence of that, he deserves more time than other players would get. He needs time off from City, not time away, and the best way to do that is to tell him we'll be there for him for as long he needs in order to get right again.