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Ilkay Gundogan enjoyed his Manchester City homecoming and says it feels like he has never been away.
Last summer the 33-year-old brought the curtain down on seven medal-laden years at the Etihad Stadium, joining Barcelona on a free transfer after captaining the side to the treble.
Gundogan left as a club great and was received as such as the midfielder made his second debut as a substitute in Saturday’s 4-1 win comeback win against promoted Ipswich.
It honestly feels like I’ve never been away and it feels like home. It’s such a joy
Ilkay Gundogan
“Yesterday, I trained for the first time with the boys and it honestly feels like I’ve never been away and it feels like home. It’s such a joy,” he said.
“I have so much happiness to play again for this amazing club in front of this amazing crowd with these amazing players. I feel very privileged.
“It’s also emotions. I got a lot of feedback over the last two days, a lot of people messaging me. 99 per cent of them were honestly so positive and emotional.
“I kind of expected that with a good result today that it would be an amazing day. Luckily it turned out like that.
“I could not have wished for a better start. I’m very proud to be back and to be with the people here with all these memories.
“Hopefully we can try to make better and new memories for the future.”
Gundogan has signed a one-year deal at City with the option of a further season and is excited to be playing under meticulous Pep Guardiola again.
“Pep is so demanding,” he said. “This is exactly what I love and enjoy. Because every year, I feel personally I have to reach my limits and get challenged. That’s one quality that is incredible in him.
“I had a short meeting with him, he showed me a few sequences of play, because since I left he tried to adapt a few details.
“Hopefully I will get them as quick as possible. I feel very confident and then we will see in what kind of role I will be able to contribute. I’m ready to go and ready to be challenged.”
City next head to West Ham before the international break, while promoted Ipswich will look to get their first Premier League win since 2002 at home to Fulham.
Having started with defeats to Liverpool and City, boss Kieran McKenna said: “I think we’ll have taken a lot from the first two games.
“We’d like to be sitting here with points on the board, but we know the fixture list meant that was going to be really difficult.
“We’re in an adaptation process. We’ve come in with a group with so many who’ve climbed from League One in a very short space of time.
“We’re now trying to integrate new players into that. That’s not going to be an overnight process, but I think week by week we’ll learn our lessons and I’m sure that will improve over the weeks and months to come.”