Man City have had more transfer flops than Man Utd and Chelsea in 2023/24
Manchester City keep winning football games, which is a very good way of papering over the cracks of what is still weirdly deemed their impeccable recruitment. We make it six flops in the last eight signings…
The tie was already over, and so was the game after nine minutes. There may never have been a more uneven match-up in Champions League knockout history – but we’re not going to whine about that again (though we nailed the predictions). Nor are we going to speculate over a double Treble, or marvel at the consistency of Rodri, or drool over the absurd and terrifying talent of Oscar Bobb. Instead we’re going to have a pop at the champs.
READ: The Rodri Conundrum and four more reasons why Man City won’t win the Premier League
Josko Gvardiol, Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes all started Wednesday’s clash having been signed in the summer along with Jeremy Doku, who missed the game through injury. That quartet cost a combined £220m, in what currently looks to be quite the waste of money.
Pep Guardiola is given transfer leeway other managers aren’t afforded, owing to the time its taken some of his best acquisitions to adapt and develop under his stewardship. Jack Grealish is a notable example, but the same was true of Riyad Mahrez, Bernardo Silva and Joao Cancelo, all of whom were eased into life at City before playing significant roles in significant club successes.
But the evidence of last season suggests signings now either hit the ground running, or never get going. Erling Haaland and Manuel Akanji at one pole, vital to the Treble last season and as important in the current campaign, Kalvin Phillips and Sergio Gomez at the other, with Phillips now on loan at West Ham and Gomez coming off the bench on Wednesday for just his 12th appearances of the season in all competitions, stuck as he is behind at least three centre-backs for his left-back berth.
Doku got half of his ten goal contributions for City in one ludicrous game against Bournemouth at the start of November, and has got one goal, against Huddersfield in the FA Cup, and no assists in 15 appearances since. He was particularly ineffective in the Manchester derby.
Gvardiol started 19 of the first 23 Premier League games of the season, but may well struggle to get back in the team on the back of Nathan Ake’s displays in his absence through injury. He’s looked nowhere near the defender who bossed proceedings for Croatia in the World Cup before coming rather unstuck against Lionel Messi. Only one Man City player lost possession more than Gvardiol (3) against Copenhagen, and that was Nunes (4).
© Provided by Football365
Manchester City paid £80m for Josko Gvardiol in the summer.
And he, like Kovacic, has been a pale imitation of Ilkay Gundogan, if that was indeed the plan, with Nunes such a downgrade that he’s been pushed to the wing where he can’t affect the game too negatively.
Some or all of the summer signings could come good, and City fans will hold out particular hope for Gvardiol, not least because he cost them a cool £80m, but such limited bang so far for such significant buck is remarkable.
Guardiola and sporting director Txiki Begiristain don’t get it in the neck for what would undoubtedly be deemed transfer flops had they been signed by Manchester United or Chelsea, partly because of a lack of coverage in comparison, but mainly because they don’t need the new signings half as much as their rivals.
But when you compare the transfer windows of those clubs signing for signing, you could reasonably claim that City had the worst of all of them.
Not only did City sign suspect players, they also sold one of the signings of the season in Cole Palmer to Chelsea, who could claim Djordje Petrovic, Nicolas Jackson and Axel Disasi also represent decent acquisitions, while injuries make it impossible to judge Romeo Lavia, Christopher Nkunku and Lesley Ugochukwu. Moises Caicedo is the one summer signing who has undoubtedly struggled.
Meanwhile, Rasmus Hojlund and Andre Onana have turned things around in impressive style at United, for whom free transfer Jonny Evans has been useful, and though Mason Mount looked well short of his best, judging him on the basis of 600 minutes feels kneejerky in the extreme.
There’s nothing like winning every football game on offer to paper over the cracks in what is still deemed by many to be near-impeccable recruitment. But that wasn’t the case last season, when the two gems balanced out the two flops, and certainly isn’t this season, as we still wait for any of the four to prove they’ve been worth the outlay.
Man Utd transfer blow: Bayern agree new contract and express interest in two Ten Hag targets
Manchester United target Mathys Tel is set to sign a new contract at Bayern Munich, according to reports.
The 18-year-old joined Bayern from French club Rennes for €20million in July 2022 and has made 59 appearances for the German giants, scoring 13 times.
Mathys Tel ‘assured’ he can become Bayern ‘legend’
He was reportedly open to leaving the club as he was not enjoying life under Thomas Tuchel, but his decision to leave the club at the end of the season has resulted in a change of heart.
It was reported last month that Manchester United have made ‘contact’ with Tel’s representatives, with Erik ten Hag keen on bringing him to Old Trafford.
However, the Red Devils have been dealt a crushing blow in their pursuit of the French teenager.
According to L’Equipe, Tel is going to sign a new contract until 2029. Florian Plettenberg has added that an announcement is imminent.
Providing a further update on Wednesday morning, the Sky Germany transfer expert confirmed that United ‘expressed an interest’ in signing the forward last summer.
Luckily for Tel, who wants to become a club ‘legend’, Bayern directors Max Eberl and Christoph Freund showed him ‘a clear path and assured him that he is planned as a key player’ for the future.
German outlet BILD adds that Tottenham and United were both ‘specifically interested’ in signing the Frenchman in the summer, but Tuchel’s decision to leave has led to a ‘big turnaround’.
Meanwhile, another Red Devils target has been linked with a move to Bayern by Plettenberg.
Related video: Manchester United club update, latest on sporting director, Erik ten Hag and more (Dailymotion)
Benfica defender Antonio Silva has been strongly linked with several Premier League clubs in recent years but United are the club you see the mentioned more than any other.
The 20-year-old is one of the highest-rated young defenders in world football and Plettenberg believes he is also on Bayern’s transfer wish list.
‘Impressed by his development’, Bayern are eyeing up a summer transfer and despite his €100m release clause, there is belief a deal between €70-80m could be done.
Their pursuit of Silva does depend on the future of Matthijs de Ligt and Dayot Upamecano, though, with a big-money centre-back not expected to join unless one leaves.
De Ligt has been linked with Manchester United himself and Erik ten Hag is a big fan of the defender having managed him at Ajax.
The Injury Crisis and four more reasons why Liverpool won’t win the Premier League
We’ve ruled out Arsenal and Manchester City, so now there is simply no other option but to also provide five – and it must always be five – reasons why Liverpool also won’t win the title.
Two of these three pieces will therefore end up wisely prophetic, and the other one will make us look like damn fools. We’re frankly delighted about this, because it far exceeds our standard ratio for predictions.
The rich and compelling reasons why Man City can’t win the title are to be found here, while it’s this way for details of why Arsenal are doomed.
On we go, then, with the final contenders in this arse-nipper of a three-way fight…
They aren’t even supposed to be here today
Bit vague and woolly this, but there’s no doubt Liverpool are the ‘What are you doing here?’ contender this year. That in itself is a curious thing given their long-standing status as City’s closest/only rivals during the Guardiola era, but it’s nevertheless true.
Quite literally every human on earth expected City to be in the title race. There were some questions about whether Arsenal could back up last season’s unexpected efforts, because they are Arsenal, but it’s no real surprise that the answer to that has turned out to be emphatically yes.
Liverpool, though? This was a Team in Transition, forced into a rushed midfield overhaul and set for a work-in-progress of a season where a return to the Champions League was a reasonable limit to expectations.Related video: Liverpool host Manchester City in potential Premier League title decider (Dailymotion)
They barely even got a mention in our pre-season predictions.
We don’t want to get too far down the cognitive dissonance road favoured by many Liverpool fans, one where the Reds are both uniquely massive This Means More merchants while simultaneously being teeny-tiny underdogs pluckily fighting the good fight against unstoppable forces, but they are definitely the rogue element in this scrap.
It seems a weird thing to say about the team that is top with 11 games to play, but it still feels like if this title race was to become a two-horse race then it will be Liverpool who have slipped out of the running. They’re doing things by the skin of their arse just too often, surely, even if we can all enjoy the sight of them annoying Gladiator-botherer Mark Clattenburg by doing so.
The Injury Crisis
You’d be forgiven for thinking, given some of the coverage, that ‘having players out injured’ is a unique new innovation Liverpool have come up with, but at the same time it is an absurdly extreme example of the genre.
Of those, only Bajcetic is a reach for ‘first-team squad’ with the other nine assorted levels of integral. It’s a list that contains three members of what might be considered Liverpool’s core four of Salah, Alexander-Arnold, Alisson and Virgil van Dijk and also far too many midfielders for any squad to comfortably negotiate the absences.
But here’s the thing. This injury list, which would be burdensomely large to handle across a whole season, is in fact just the list of those currently missing. Darwin Nunez and Dominik Szoboszlai are feeling their way back from injury, while Wataru Endo picked up a knock in the Carabao final but has simply not been permitted to have that be a significant injury because there’s quite simply nobody else available.
The Quadruple bid
The thing with Quadruples is that not only do they rarely happen, but that even the Icarus-like attempt at flying towards that particular sun can unravel a whole season. There’s a warning from history for Liverpool here in the shape of old foes Manchester United last season.
Now United were never quite in the title race the way Liverpool undoubtedly are this year and the media pretended for five minutes Erik Ten Hag’s gang were, but they were on the fringes of it. And had very presentable chances of adding the Europa League and FA Cup to the early Carabao success.
They’re not entirely different situations, is what we’re saying, and United ended up exhausted, spent and unable to add anything else to the trophy cabinet after the Carabao. They did manage to scramble their way to the FA Cup final, but in the Europa League were well beaten over two legs by Sevilla in the last eight while any far-fetched title aspirations they may have held were ended at almost this exact time last year in a run of three games that began with a game Liverpool fans might just remember at Anfield that was followed by a limp goalless draw at home to relegation-haunted Southampton and a pretty decent beating off Newcastle.
Liverpool have just come off a run of four games in 11 days and today embark on another such run before the international break, across three competitions, that includes clashes with both Manchester clubs. And there is little scope for the fixture list to ease over the weeks and months that follow.
Emotional farewells
Liverpool have, to be fair, kept this in reasonable check so far, but the longer the title bid remains on track and the greater the chance of it actually happening, the more the Jurgen Klopp Farewell Title narrative is going to mount.
Klopp himself is clearly aware of this and doing everything he can in his power to play it down, but there’s only so much even he can do to keep a lid on it. If there’s one club that can handle the idea that circumstances dictate that something might perhaps mean more to them than their rivals, it still has enormous potential to shift from source of inspiration to albatross around the neck, suffocating Liverpool’s young bucks under the weight of what is by definition a unique one-off opportunity for this specific storyline, something that doesn’t apply in north London or Manchester.
Fourth and fifth
The top three may be away and clear, but the next two have opened up gaps of their own over everyone else. Aston Villa have been consistently pretty bloody good all season, while Spurs are not in any way consistent but bring a chaotic energy that almost matches Liverpool’s own.
Both are clearly enormously dangerous opponents, and Liverpool are slated to face them back-to-back right as the title race will reach its keenest pitch in early May. Neither City nor Arsenal were able to beat Tottenham at home, while both lost at Villa Park.
Liverpool will very likely have to avoid not just one but both of those mishaps to stay in contention, even if they do somehow manage to drag themselves through the vast thicket of matches that stands between now and that ticklish problem without losing touch.
Now read the Arsenal and Manchester City versions if you haven’t already.
Pep Guardiola makes it clear who is to blame for gruelling schedule before Liverpool trip
Pep Guardiola took aim at broadcasters over Manchester City's relentless schedule following their Champions League Round of 16 triumph over FC Copenhagen.
The reigning European champions cruised through to the quarter-finals with a 6-2 win on aggregate. Goals from Manuel Akanji, Julian Alvarez and Erling Haaland sealed a 3-1 win on the night for Guardiola's side, who have now reached the last eight for the seventh successive season.
City's victory over Copenhagen comes just days after they beat Manchester United in the derby at the weekend. The Premier League champions now face a mouthwatering title showdown with Liverpool on Sunday, giving them limited time to recover and prepare.
Guardiola alluded to that fact post-match when he made it clear that he was less than impressed with City's schedule. When he was asked if the seven changes to his team were made with Sunday's match at Anfield in mind, Guardiola responded: "I wanted fresh legs. If you have the info I had – we had – after the Manchester United game, you would understand the decisions of the team selection today."
He continued: It’s a lot of games, so that’s why. Normally when you play Champions League on Tuesday or Wednesday they allow you to play on Saturday, but this country does not allow you. You’re playing Sunday.Related video: Guardiola praises Man City hierarchy for giving him ‘time’ to win trophies (The Independent)
But we are there for seven times in a row.
"So that’s why you have to [rotate]. If we played Saturday then today would be completely different but it was not the case. So that’s why I think the selection today was the best team, with the fresh legs, for the mind, for the desire to compete against Copenhagen."
When Guardiola was asked if he'd spoken to the Premier League over the issue, he retorted: "No, it's not the Premier League, it's the broadcasters and they all say the same answer - we pay a lot of money so shut up'."
Join the debate! Who do you think will win on Sunday: Liverpool or Man City? Let us know here.
© PA
The Spaniard, who also refused to answer questions relating to the Liverpool match until his Friday press conference, believes his side have the pedigree to win a second successive European title after claiming a historic treble last year.
He told BBC Sport: "We arrived here from Barcelona and Bayern Munich, where the demand is to always be there. I felt the club - not the players - didn't feel it. Managers and hierarchies don't get time, but they gave us time to lose against Monaco [2017], against Liverpool [2018], against Tottenham [2019].
"It is easy for clubs that have big history - start with the best ones: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool, Bayern Munich or Manchester United, they have been used to it.
"Coming here, it was not about one person from Catalonia saying 'now we are going to win the Champions League'. They gave me time. Now we are a process where we can lose, definitely, but we can compete everywhere because we come from a final, a semi-final, a final and now the quarter-finals again. That means consistency."
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