Manchester City: Ahead of the pack
It’s only been a week since the Premier League transfer window opened, yet Manchester City have already got two signings done with more to come. What does this mean going forward?
There’s nothing like football transfer season, it’s simply unique. Having written about other sports in the past, I can vouch for it. Over there, you get the rumors, you get the signings, you get on with it. Back here though, it’s the on-again, off-again roller coaster where multiple sources are confirming multiple entirely different scenarios about a single player to a single club every single day. It’s exhausting.
If you’re not up to speed yet, Liverpool have both signed Mohammed Salah and simultaneously not even expressed interest in him. United are getting Antoine Griezmann, but they don’t actually want him at all, or do they? Milan have been linked to just about every famous player around, Adebayo Akinfenwa excepted, in their never-ending bid to reclaim the glory days. In this wilderness of confusion, an oasis of straight-forwardness exists in Manchester City for whom it all seems to be just falling into place.
It’s only been a week since the Blues surprised fans, experts and pundits alike by announcing Monaco’s Bernardo Silva, an heir apparent to their midfield maestro of the same family name, on the very first day of the transfer window. Silva had been linked heavily to a move to Old Trafford, among other destinations, but rarely had City been mentioned with his name. Then boom, one day of speculation, £40 million and a secret flight to Manchester for Bernardo later, another mega talent has suddenly been added to the Premier League’s most formidable attacking line-up.
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That was only the beginning. Names started to come out, left and right. Landing on the hapless media like a flurry of Mike Tyson blows – Benjamin Mendy, Alexis Sanchez, Kylian Mbappe, Kyle Walker, Ederson Moraes. The latter has already put pen to paper for City and announced as headed Pep’s direction by Benfica themselves. Say what you like, but Guardiola isn’t pulling any punches and City’s alacrity almost certainly has changed the outlook of the entire window.
You see, with so many competitors for a limited pool of talent, and so much money from Premier League clubs to invest, it was nigh essential Manchester City got ahead of the pack and set the tone. It seems they did just that. Stepping in to seal two top signings before the end of May, with a potential three or four more looking likely before it’s even July, is borderline unprecedented and has limited the potential talent pool even further. Pep has unquestionably outmanoeuvred his rivals and the dividends will be the inevitable increase in prices as the window prolongs, and competition becomes fiercer, will be avoided.
Along with the City-transfer dominated news, of course, comes the same old tired accusations of being a wallet club run on oil money. Never mind that most of these seem to come from those connected with a club who spent more on Paul Pogba’s agent than City did on Silva, it all doesn’t matter in the end. Pep gets his man and he gets him in time to train him and help him acclimatize into the new squad and environment.
Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak alluded to this activity in his traditional end of year interview when he mentioned the importance of doing business quickly. Indeed, he claimed everything in life was better if done quicker. I can think of quite a few things that break the rule, cooking chicken, talking to your wife, walking on a tightrope, but when it comes to football he’s generally right. The proof of the pudding is very much in the eating.
Either which way, it’s obvious that immense pressure is on both Guardiola personally, and City as a collective, to perform this season coming. Domestic trophies aren’t just expected, they are demanded. International progress too is anticipated to give the owners, and fans, some sense that the long-term project initiated at the Etihad with the arrival of Pep is actually progressing. I think with some of the names coming out, such as Silva and Ederson, it’s hard not to envisage a situation where Guardiola struggles in the same ways as he did in his inaugural year.
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Nothing of course is for certain, but it seems to me to be a good sign for City’s fortunes when they are moving so quickly and watching their rivals fight to keep parity. If nothing else, at least it’s one club that the media circus that won’t drive us all insane with this summer, the oasis in the desert, and for that we should be thankful.