Club spent over £280m in six months to bring in players in nearly every position
Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano is pleased with the steps the club have taken in the transfer window over the past six months to reinforce a side that had begun to show weaknesses.
Pep Guardiola’s team finished third last season, with no trophy for the first time in seven years and having to qualify for the Champions League on the final day. Club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said after the season ended last month that they would need to be “aggressive” and “very swift” in the transfer window to bring in reinforcements.
Ahead of the Club World Cup’s kick-off in June, City managed to bring four new players into their squad, including Tijjani Reijnders from AC Milan, Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolves, and Rayan Cherki from Lyon. These transfers were concluded within the space of just 10 days.
This was in addition to the signings the club had also made in January, bringing in Vitor Reis, Abdukodir Khusanov, Nico Gonzalez and Omar Marmoush – which equals a total of seven major signings, for a sum of over £280m.
Soriano said: “I’m happy with the work that we did. This is part of multi-annual planning. Last summer we only bought one new player [Savinho], but this year between the winter and the summer it will be eight new ones.
The eighth addition to the squad is goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli, the 33-year-old veteran signed from Chelsea for £2m.
Soriano said that the new signings are “part of the annual cycle, the renewal of the squad”.
“We accelerated some of it and now we are very happy with the squad we have,” said the chief executive. “It’s part of the game. We look for stability, the fact that Pep is going to be with us for 10 years shows that we are a stable club.
“But the squad needs to be renewed. It’s something that happens naturally. We’ve had fantastic players like Kevin De Bruyne who spent a decade with us. That’s a testament to his quality but also our stability.”
Manchester City comfortably dispatched African champions Wydad Casablanca in their first group game at the Club World Cup on Wednesday, and will now face Saudi Pro League side Al Ain on Monday, 23 June, and Italian side Juventus on 26 June.
City would expect favourable results, which would allow them to progress to the knockout stages where they will meet other tough European opposition.
Soriano said that the club are “very excited” by the new format of the competition. City are the current holders of the Club World Cup, having won the tournament in 2023 on the back of a historical treble.
But that incarnation of the competition involved seven teams playing a knockout tournament from essentially a quarter-final round. This summer’s edition is an expanded format with 32 teams from all over the world competing in a similar manner to the FIFA World Cup for national teams, which means that a lot more clubs are represented globally than with the previous format.
“It’s something that was very much needed,” said Soriano. “Soccer is a global sport and we have to make it global. You have to have teams like Manchester City playing teams from Morocco, Korea or wherever. That’s part of the globalisation of the No 1 sport in the world. It’s a great initiative and we are very happy to be here.
“It’s very important to be here because we are a global football club. We have our roots and we are proud of them. But you can be local and relevant and faithful to the history of the club and the fans that support you, but you can also be global and show what we do – which we believe is beautiful football – to the world. It’s a combination that works very well and we are proud.”
