“People say: Man City is coming again!” Pep Guardiola commented at the end of January. “Every successful team in this country in the last two or 3 decades has spent more than other clubs. “
But there is more. The City spent 178 million sterling pounds in five players in January, much more than any other club in Europe, in an attempt to revitalize its wobbly season, which is unlikely to replace its reputation as great spending.
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Vitor Reis (£29. 5m), Abdukodir Khusanov (£33. 5m), Omar Marmoush (£59m) and, on deadline day, Nico Gonzalez (£49. 9m) brought in to inject quality and power into the squad, Whilst Juma Bah (£4. 75m but without delay lent to the goal) known as a talented player who can play for the city on a long-term basis or be sold for profit.
Having seen their team’s form slump in recent months, many City supporters believe this kind of investment has been long overdue.
“During the more than five years, we have had a 11th position in net expenses,” Guardiola added recently, and it is not the first time that he cites those figures.
They were compiled through the city and are related to the net expenditure of European clubs. City has less than five Premier League groups: Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, as well as Paris Saint -Germain, Bayern Munich, Milan, Juventus and Atlético de Madrid.
City Monitor the market for trends related to contracts and signings: anything they demonstrated in a documentary produced through the club in 2022 where director of football Txiki Begiristain and former football operations leader Omar Berrada have discussed their operation in front of the cameras.
The “Big Six” competition of the city is forward of this specific list, but in truth, the maximum of the Premier League are. During the same five -year period, class 20 of the city of the 25 who played in the competition.
They have continued to invest in their team, of course, with Jack Grealish and Josko Gvardiol two of the bigger recent deals, but a combination of spending relatively low fees and selling academy players, plus Julian Alvarez’s £81.5m move to Atletico, means that City have plenty of money in the bank and, crucially, the ability to comply with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules while they spend it.
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But in fact, spending them looked at the time table as recently as at the beginning of December. When going to the winter window, City only had one objective: a box from cash to cash.
Ironically, this figure, González, only the last day of the window arrived. On Friday night, the city’s message was that they did not intend to pay its liberation clause. On Monday morning, the day after a defeat of 5-1 punishment in Arsenal, they agreed to pay the figure after all, only structured differently.
This raises the question: how has you juggled with City the demands to add quality to the squad for the progress of the rapid race making sure they obtain the right -term players in the long term?
When he showed in October that Hugo Viana would leave CP Sporting to update Begiristain as a soccer director next summer, city and specifically the Portuguese team later searched to emphasize that Viana would only concentrate on her attention in the city at the end of the season . .
There was a recognition that he could start putting his feet under the table towards the end of the campaign, and the existing expectation is that he will assume the tasks in March, but his role in the city’s movement window was revealed through A little of something that probably source. At the beginning of January, a city fan encountered Begiristain in the middle of the city and asked for a photo. It did not go unnoticed for a long time that the State in the background was Viana.
Those who have held discussions with City during the past few weeks, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, say that Viana has been heavily involved in the club’s business, and specifically so with the signing of Reis from Palmeiras.
The 19-year-old Brazilian centre-back was well-known to top European clubs, including City, and Viana was among those who had tracked his progress for his role at Sporting. But towards the end of last year it was Arsenal who were in the driving seat.
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Perhaps the due resolution of City to make significant movements in the market has helped win the race. Palmeiras had told the contestants that they would not sell it before the Club World Cup this summer, an impediment that the city had to succeed, and all the clubs that made its moderate diligence a few weeks before the opening of the Window No I would have found the cars outside that city, because at that time, they were not.
It was not until the moment of the week of December that they needed major changes. Although they had lost 4 of their five games in November, and signed Guardiola with a new contract, the club attached to the script: they would review the team in the summer.
It had been intentional since the end of last season, at least. They asked Savinho and Ilkay Gundogan last summer in minor moves, one of the reasons why these overall net expenses are very healthy, and they were fully in a position to keep the team in combination for another year.
Guardiola told the record that he had personally rejected the concept of making more signatures in summer. Japan’s attacker, Kyogo Furuhashi, was a player who would not need, despite Álvarez’s departure. This month, Kyogo joined Rennes, while the city brought Marmous from Frankfurt to the negotiations, the Egyptian was shown in Álvarez’s report and said they were winning.
This was another agreement that was rapidly placed, since it has become transparent for the city in December that could not wait.
There optimism in the foreign break in November, when Guardiola signed a new two -year contract, that the players would soon return from an injury and put an end to which at that time a series of 3 rays of consecutive defeat
The trust (or maybe hope) that players like Ruben Dias, John Stones and Jeremy Doku would return to action in early December and assistance fixes things.
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It is not precisely a case of a final city in their soil disorders, because they had known the need for a midfielder full of life. This, combined with the return to the physical form of its defenders, had to be enough to give things.
But the performances and effects continued to slide and the injury scenario worsened: Stones was forced at half-time of the first game after the break, while Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake were injured by the positive odd point of a 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest. Even now, Dias and Doku are back in touch after the opposite and the stones only return after a deserted return moment at the end of December.
“The club will bring an additional player in the last third place with the ability to score, assists, races and pieces,” Guardiola said about Marmoush last week. “Except with the Aimrica Laporte (in 2018), we never use the winter movement window. But it was an exceptional situation, we had to interfere to end the season as intelligent as possible. ”
Although Guardiola said positive that Reis and Khusanov are in a position to give a contribution without delay when he asked directly, he much more careful when he discussed his preparation at other times, and Khusanov would never have begun opposite to Chelsea if the city the scene of injuries It has not been so disastrous: Akanji, the only central defender who began this party.
We strongly invite the city to have received two more productive talents for the future. The fact that they are in Manchester with the team now is a sign of that. ) and he is one of the signs in which the club recognises his potential, but also that he is not necessarily enough to play for Guardiola’s first team.
Reis and Khusanov are different. The world’s leading clubs had been tracking Reis, while Khusanov — another player on Viana’s shortlist at Sporting — has the pace and aggression to be moulded into a top-class defender.
It is expected that the foreigner of Uzbekistan will give a contribution to a safe degree this season, which will help relieve tension in the central defenders with excess work of the club and provide a type of policy for the late Kyle Walker.
The right back of England had massive difficulties in the first component of the season and, in the middle of the criticisms of partisan insurance, he estimated that he can no longer have cut it to the city. Combined with a long -standing preference to play abroad, he took the opportunity to register in Milan, in component after speaking with sports director Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
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Walker had conveyed his desire to leave City to Begiristain, which is something that disappointed Guardiola, as he felt that the two of them had such a good relationship that his captain could come to him with anything.
Walker is set for a loan deal that includes an option to buy for less than £5m, but lately there is no indication that Milan will make the move permanent. However, the 34-year-old posted on social media suggests he doesn’t expect to return to town for the final year of his contract.
In his absence, Dias was promoted at the time Captain, Kevin de Bruyne.
Another story of the window was that of James Mcatee. The 22 -year -old had interviews with Begiristain the preseason because he had the interest of clubs in England and through Europe, however, the decision was made to remain, with Guardiola in preopulation, he had the quality of the quality of the quality of the quality of the quality of the quality of of the game with the first team.
However, despite the injuries, fatigue and deterioration in the shape of the fields and ends of the city, as well as the club’s own popularity for those areas, Mcatee has not yet begun the Premier League.
Guardiola goes on to say that McAtee is enough to play for the city, anything he has also conveyed privately, but so far, the movements have spoken louder than words.
Bayer Leverkusen made a loan offered for McAtee, which included an option to buy for 25 million pounds sterling, but under the regulations of FIFA regulations, clubs can only lend six players abroad, and City has Filling the last two positions with Walker and Bah. . In any case, the club had no preference to let McAtee pass. Although he agreed that a transfer to Leverkusen would be ideal for him because he would paint Bajo Xabi Alonso, betting a flavor that he has left at the highest point in European football and along Florian Wirtz, the message that he could not pass there The squad suffers in shape and injuries.
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McAtee’s situation attracted interest from a good chunk of the Premier League and most of Germany’s top six. Stuttgart, RB Leipzig, Frankfurt and Mainz all proposed loans, as did Italian side Fiorentina.
Nottingham Forest are great fans, but they have not been able to succeed in an agreement, while Tottenham has been informed through the city that they do not go to the upper players. Meanwhile, it was discouraged by the concept that the city had sought a payment similar to what Cole Pale will be sold.
Mcatee stayed, then, despite having noticed that City brought another midfielder and a striker.
Chelsea also tried to indicate that Nico O’Reilly, 19, went through the window, but City insisted on a purchase, that the London did not accept. They already have the former graduates of the Palmer City Academy, Romeo Lavia and Tosin Adarabioyo, as well as Jadon Sancho. The non -unusual thread is Joe Shields, the former head of recruitment of the City Academy, who knows the players well.
Jason Wilcox, former leader of the City Academy and now United Technical Director, is on the same ship and the same city sources await United that makes the movements similar to Chelsea in the coming years: they have rival Chelsea by Tosin’s firm last summer.
The position of the city had been in fact that no senior player would leave, which meant that Galatasaray’s interest in Gundagan did not pass far. Guondogan enrolled in the city of Barcelona in summer, but has been called to play a role that can no longer play several times. It also houses genuine ambitions to register in the staff of Guardiola’s coaches after retirement, anything Guardiola also worries. However, when Gundagan signed in summer, his agreement included a clause that meant that one more year will be activated if he plays 50% of the city’s matches. This step is now some games.
A player who continued the city but cannot bring the full flexible back of Juventus Andrea Cambaso. The Italian team opens up for business this month, but only for £66 million, a number the city hasn’t reached. This interest may be revived in the summer, when the city plans to make several more vital additions to the team.
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Ironically, since they first planned to point out a midfielder this winter, González was the last player through the door. Douglas Luiz was another very expected player, but City established an agreement for González, a former young man in Barcelona, in the beyond a few days.
But obviously they had to pay a reward for their despair, since before all I try to negotiate well under the release clause.
“It was a difficult transfer to complete because his performances have been outstanding, and he has been such an important part of what FC Porto are doing this season,” Begiristain said of Gonzalez.
— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 3, 2025
Frankfurt had also insisted that Marmoush not be kept in this window, just as Palmeiras sought to remain in Reis for their Club Global Club campaign, but City made sure they both had.
The prices that the city has paid are comfortably in its media and also meet the type of cash they have spent in recent years. The two defenders were also signed with the long race in mind.
This suggests that the city has maintained a cold head in the last seven or 8 weeks, detecting the desire to have an effect now, but balancing it as opposed to ensuring that players will be intelligent enough to be components of the new construction team During the last years of Guardiola to the club.
The last minute cash spent in González suggests a panic detail with respect to the domain that the maximum strengthening of wishes, and the arrival of the past shouts slightly the first option, but it is the response to its short -term disorders and it is what it is what Intelligent enough to be intelligent to be intelligent component of its new era, it will be spent in cash well even if it is more than it intended to separate.
Normally, if a club holds a payment that the town does not agree with, it leaves, no matter how much it needs a player. But it wasn’t a general window.
(Header photos: Getty images)