Grading Manchester City’s summer transfer window

With the Premier League’s summer window slamming shut on Thursday, defending champions Manchester City strengthened in several key areas.

While this summer was far from Pep Guardiola’s most eye-catching window, his Manchester City side added solid depth in areas of concern that will equip the Blues to once again mount a challenge on all four fronts.

The focal point of the window was bringing in Rodri to eventually replace Fernandinho at the base of City’s midfield. The £65 million move for the 23-year old holding midfielder became the club’s record signing to fill perhaps the Citizens’ biggest need heading into the new season. Built in a very similar mold to Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets, Rodri will look to screen the back four and cover ground in order to cut out opposing counter-attacks. All in all, he will be City’s signature signing from this window and could be just the solution the Blues need to cope with the 34-year old Fernandinho’s inevitable decline.

Although Rodri will arguably be the most important player signed in this window, City’s best bit of business came on Wednesday with the signing of João Cancelo from Juventus. Signed for just £27 million with Danilo also heading to Turin, the Portuguese fullback can be considered among the world’s best at his position. City managed to get immense value for Danilo, who struggled with consistency during his time at the Etihad Stadium, allowing them to get a superior player at a heavily-discounted price. Cancelo is primarily a right-back meant to compete with the incumbent Kyle Walker, but Cancelo can also play as a left-back or winger and is a phenomenal attacking talent blessed with fantastic pace and a great cross. There is a serious case he should immediately compete for a starting spot, and if he fails to break into the side from the jump, he will serve as a key piece in Guardiola’s defensive rotation.

Continuing with the theme of value, City exercised former PSV left-back Angeliño’s buy-back clause this summer for just £11 million. The Spaniard enjoyed an extremely productive stint in the Netherlands and he will provide depth and competition for Oleksander Zinchenko, Benjamin Mendy, and perhaps even Cancelo at that position. Even if he does not manage to break into City’s starting defense on a regular basis, City can undoubtedly move him on and turn a solid profit on the open market.

Finally, on deadline day, City announced the puzzling season-long loan deal for 33-year old Derby County goalkeeper Scott Carson to serve as a third-choice goalkeeper behind Ederson and Claudio Bravo. A veteran presence with leadership qualities, perhaps Carson can begin to fill the void left by Vincent Kompany in the dressing room.

Although it came via unfortunate circumstances, Leroy Sané‘s ACL injury in the Community Shield victory over Liverpool could have all but confirmed that he will remain a City player for at least the near future amid interest from Bayern Munich. The German winger is an absolutely electric player who will be dearly missed this season, but should now remain in the club’s long-term plans.

While it may not have been the flashiest window at the Etihad Stadium, it proved to be productive once again for Director of Football Txiki Begiristain and Guardiola. City have once again not gone out and signed established superstar players, but rather, elite young talent with the ability to be molded into stars under the tutelage of one of the world’s best coaches in a competitive side that plays one of the most intense styles of football around Europe. City filled several needs, found great value for money, and improved on an already-fantastic team. While not signing a center-back could very well prove to be an Achilles heel heading into the campaign, this City side is still more than well-equipped to handle another grueling but success-laden season.

Final Grade: B+