Man City might have got their transfer strategy wrong in 2025

Manchester City have had a busy year in the transfer market but at the end of it the question is how much the team has improved.

This year was supposed to be the start of a rebuild at Manchester City. Big names were shown the door, and both transfer windows in 2025 were dominated by new arrivals, with more than £350millon spent in January and the summer.

In total, there are nine players in Pep Guardiola's squad who have joined the club this year, with a further two out on loan, in Vitor Reis and Sverre Nypan. The spending spree has added strength to a squad that fell apart during an unprecedented injury crisis last season.

But after back-to-back defeats and three losses in seven games in all competitions, the question is whether City have pursued the right transfer strategy this year. They have added depth, but have they added enough quality?

If everyone was fit and available, of the nine players signed this year, there might only be one who is absolutely guaranteed a start in Guardiola's strongest team. That is £26million goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who has offered an upgrade on Ederson.

With Rodri still struggling for fitness, the £50million spent on Nico Gonzalez is looking a wise investment. The Spaniard has improved this season, but it is evident he is still some way short of his compatriot's level. As Guardiola said recently, when Rodri is fit, he will play.

Elsewhere in midfield, it seems likely that one of Rayan Cherki or Tijjani Reijnders would start. The only games where neither has started this season have been at Huddersfield in the Carabao Cup and Villarreal in the Champions League.

Which one of them gets the nod is the subject of plenty of debate at the moment. Cherki was in fine form a couple of weeks ago, but struggled from the start against Liverpool and Newcastle, and was disappointing in a 25-minute cameo from the bench in the midweek defeat to Bayer Leverkusen. He is still only 22 and looks a bargain at £34million on his day, but he is adapting to a new league and his style of play means there will be times when he is on the periphery of games.

Reijnders looked a snip at £46million in the early weeks of the season, but after winning man of the match against Wolves on his Premier League debut, he has gone backwards. He has failed to score since, despite scoring 15 times for AC Milan this season, and isn't leaving his mark on games from midfield.

He has been on the bench for the last three Premier League games and spent the final quarter against Leverkusen playing at right-back. If this was his chance to prove he should be back in the side, then he didn't take it.

Omar Marmoush is the most expensive of the 2025 recruits, at £59million, and it's probably fair to say City wouldn't be in the Champions League without his goals in the second half of last season. But his standards have slipped this term and his only goal in 11 appearances came against Swansea City.

Abdukodir Khusanov has looked a relatively reliable stand-in at right-back and centre-back, but on the left, it has been a dispiriting couple of months for Rayan Ait-Nouri. The £31million summer signing from Wolves has lost his place to Nico O'Reilly and was taken off at half-time against Bayer Leverkusen after a nightmare first-half performance.

So if Guardiola had everyone fit and was picking his best, it could potentially look like this: Donnarumma, Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Nico O'Reilly, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, Savinho, Jeremy Doku, Erling Haaland.

It could be that you take Savinho out, given the Brazilian has been poor as well, and bring in one of Reijnders or Cherki. But it goes to show that the recruitment this year isn't yet bringing about the improvement required.

The Blues are better than last season, but have still lost a third of their 12 Premier League games. After a couple of weeks of positivity following the win against Liverpool, the last few days have left people in little doubt as to the gap that exists to Arsenal, who, by contrast, have had a brilliant few days.

Perhaps City would have been better off aiming for a couple of big signings this summer, rather than shopping in the mid-price bracket. They have had success with that before, but consistently getting those sorts of deals right is very difficult, as this season is now proving.