Pep Guardiola and new sporting director Hugo Viana have their hands full revamping the squad at the Etihad Stadium
Last summer, Manchester City had an uncharacteristically quiet transfer window and paid a heavy price for it. After spending only £20 million ($27m) to sign Savinho while re-signing Ilkay Gundogan on a free, City went on to have their worst season in nine years. Pep Guardiola's side did not just surrender their Premier League crown – they finished third on 71 points, the lowest points total in the serial-winning coach's 16-year career. City also failed to reach the last 16 of the Champions League in another unwanted first for the Catalan, while they failed to win a major trophy for the first time since Pep's debut campaign in 2016-17.
Guardiola has since recognised that he made a mistake in showing loyalty to the core of players who won four league titles in a row, and last week chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak admitted, "last summer we probably should have been more aggressive in some of the changes we needed to do. We didn't do that and that ended up costing us this year."
City began their overdue rebuild in January by spending £180 million ($243m) on Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis, and Khaldoon has pledged for the overhaul to continue at a frenetic pace: "We have clearly identified who exactly are the targets, in what positions, and we have our clear number one option, our clear number two option. And we'll go about our business, and it will be very clear, very swift."
City need to act fast as they have two transfer windows to operate in, one which closes on June 10 before the Club World Cup begins, and another that runs between June 16 and September 1. As Khaldoon suggested they would, the club have wasted no time in getting going, with talks ongoing regarding moves for AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders and Lyon forward Rayan Cherki, while Wolves left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri has also emerged as a priority target.
More big-money deals will be necessary as City begin the daunting task of finding a successor for Kevin De Bruyne and addressing the other concerns around their ageing squad, which appeared to lose the insatiable hunger that used to define it.
GOAL sets out the key transfer decisions Guardiola and new sporting director Hugo Viana need to make to ensure the squad is fully equipped to fight to win their Premier League title back after this summer…
Getty Images SportPrioritise full-backs
Guardiola convinced City to spend £130m ($175m) on three new full-backs in the summer of 2017, and he would have good reason to make a similar statement now as the club urgently need to strengthen both at right- and left-back.
Kyle Walker, who was one of the three to arrive eight years ago, had a nightmare first half of the campaign before being loaned out to AC Milan in January and will surely need to find a new permanent home. Rico Lewis, meanwhile, was expected to be Walker's long-term replacement at right-back, but he is still developing amid a growing belief that is a more natural midfielder. City, therefore, are crying out for a specialist right-back after Guardiola used makeshift Matheus Nunes there for many games in 2024-25.
The position of left-back is also up for grabs after Nathan Ake missed much of the season due to various injuries while Josko Gvardiol was moved into central defence for the final two months so as to make way for Nico O'Reilly. The youngster had a great impact when he broke into the team, but is too raw and inexperienced to lock down the position for next season. It is also not his natural position, which is midfield.
Ait-Nouri, who directly contributed to 11 Premier League goals last season for Wolves, is seen as the likely answer there, but City will then need to focus on getting a right-back in to complete their new-look backline.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportSign a long-term No.1
Both of City's goalkeepers performed badly last season, and new blood is needed between the posts. Ederson actually wanted to leave last summer after receiving tempting offers from Saudi Arabia, only for Guardiola to convince him to stay. Yet despite assisting a remarkable four goals, the Brazil international endured one of his worst campaigns when it came to keeping the ball out of the net, above all in the Champions League.
Ederson lost his place to Stefan Ortega on a couple of occasions, but the Germany didn't prove as reliable as in the previous campaign, when he made the title-winning save to deny Tottenham's Son Heung-min in the season's penultimate game. Instead, the defining image of Ortega in 2024-25 was him being yelled at by Guardiola for conceding a sloppy late equaliser at Brentford.
With both shot-stoppers about to enter the final year of their respective contracts, the time is ripe for City to make a statement signing in goal. Diogo Costa of Porto would be the ideal choice, but he has a high price tag given he is the Portuguese side's club captain and one of their highest earners. Joan Garcia of Espanyol, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the most exciting young goalkeepers in Europe and City are among the many top clubs to have expressed interest in signing the 24-year-old, who has a €25m (£21m/$28m) release clause.
AFPFind a De Bruyne successor
A lot has been said about the importance of De Bruyne, his legacy as City's best-ever player and the rights and wrongs of him being allowed to leave for free. But a lot less has been said, at least in public, about who will replace him. The Belgian became City's most expensive player when he signed from Wolfsburg in the summer of 2015, but the club have not shown the same ambition when it comes to finding his heir.
Florian Wirtz stuck out as the outstanding candidate to take the baton from De Bruyne, but City turned away from a potential deal for the Bayer Leverkusen schemer due to the soaring costs of a potential deal. Morgan Gibbs-White would be the next-best available option available, though City do look to be going down the Cherki route for now.
De Bruyne is truly irreplaceable, but City will at least need to make sure they have another match-winner to turn to with him now out of the picture.
GettyRejuvenate the midfield
One of the most memorable outbursts from a City player during the fraught campaign came after March's FA Cup quarter-final win at Bournemouth, when Bernardo Silva confronted journalists about the perception that the squad was getting on a bit. "Give me names," he demanded. "I'm 30, [Mateo] Kovacic is 30, you're not talking about guys that are 36. We had four bad months and out of nowhere we're old, we're not good enough? That’s people who don't understand the game, never played the game."
Bernardo made his point emphatically, but there was also an element of the midfielder protesting too much. City's squad aged, and not like a fine wine. There had even been an admission from the club in January when they signed three players aged 23 or under, with Marmoush, who turned 26 in February, the oldest of the quartet of winter signings.
Midfield was the area with the most players on the wrong side of 30, given City also had Jack Grealish (30), Gundogan (34) and De Bruyne (33). The strain of playing twice a week got too much for the veteran grouo, and Kovacic could be the only player in that age bracket who survives the summer. Bernardo is thought to be on the brink of leaving while Guardiola questioned whether Gundgogan should stay and Grealish needs to leave for his own sake. Reijnder's presumed arrival might not be the last in terms of fresh midfield blood this summer.