admin Manchester City are set to sign Mateo Kovacic but are not close to any other deals as they wait on departures.
It’s been just over two weeks since Manchester City’s season ended in a treble and already the transfer madness is on the rise.
Most City fans are obviously interested in how the line-up turns out next year, but some of the online ‘supporters’ are nervous and screaming about who will be the Txiki Begiristain to enter and leave the gates of Etihad this season’s summer . In an endless and unsuccessful quest to get what they want, when they want it, these folks spend their days arguing with “fans” at other clubs about who has the better window, and reporters into the night pushing in to keep them updated.
This is obviously not a city-specific issue, but given the nature of the city’s transfer activities, the chances of satisfaction at this stage of the window are even lower. Mateo Kovacic will soon be signed from Chelsea for an initial £25m and should prove a very useful squad player even with the focus on bigger things.The reality at the moment is that those bigger things haven’t happened (I know there’s still two weeks to go until the end of the season and City haven’t finalized all the transfers for next year yet!). No clause has been activated with Erling Haaland and these transactions tend to take longer.
Unlike Haaland, there is no obvious need to sign a specific player. While they were stripped of the number 9 for two years, this team just won the treble.
Of course there is interest in Declan Rice, as well as interest in Jude Bellingham as City weigh their options with the departure of Ilkay Gundogan and the likely departure of Bernardo Silva. Likewise, Josko Gvardiol is the option that Aymeric Laporte should leave.But if you take Bernardo, he’s been available for at least two years and hasn’t left; Oleksandr Zinchenko was eventually traded in 2022 after being available for pick in every summer window since 2018.
With Guardiola not liking big teams, City will have to wait for departures this summer. It might not feature Twitter siren emotes, but buying five players and not being able to balance the releases doesn’t make sense.
City also boasts a roster full of versatile players who can play in many positions such as; B. Phil Foden, who can play wide or in a central midfield role, and John Stones, who can go from box to box; Manu Akanji came into play as a central defender last season and played in some of the most important games at right-back and left-back. Even if the club aren’t looking for a direct replacement, there will likely already be someone in the squad (treble goalscorer) who can.
All of this may not please a certain breed of football fan who asks about transfers every second, but City’s attitude towards their side means patience will be called for this summer and next season.
