Revolution at Manchester City: Pep Guardiola's departure causes an unprecedented historic exodus

The arrival of Sheikh Mansour marked a before and after in the history of a Manchester City that, since then, has won eight Premier titles and, above all, its first and long-awaited Champions . All of this having invested 3.39 billion euros in signings, surpassed only by Chelsea (3.86). Guardiola 's departure, however, has led to an exodus that is turning the ‘cityzen’ club’s market into a record-breaking summer.

In recent years, Manchester City also began to become an exemplary club when it came to offloading assets to finance the purchase of new pieces. So much so that, since the summer of 2022, they have been bringing in more than 100 million in each and every one of these seasons. The ‘ceiling’ was set in 22-23 with 161.9 million in income from player sales. An amount that has doubled in this window to reach 336.9 ‘million’.

Sales income for Man. City since Sheikh Mansour's arrival:

The appointment of Enzo Maresca , which took longer to arrive than expected due to certain legal matters pending resolution with Chelsea , was meant to draw a continuous line with the rebuilding already begun by Pep Guardiola , who had him on his staff during the 22-23 season. “He was the candidate who stood out the most in our evaluations. We know his personality and his vision of how football should be played. He is upright, charismatic, and passionate. In addition to his successes at Chelsea and Leicester , his track record at City speaks for itself,” explained Ferran Soriano , the club’s CEO .

“Probably the reason I’m here is also because the club’s idea is to maintain the same style and approach. But we’re going to try to do what matters most, which is to win,” pointed out Enzo Maresca , who, however, also wanted to distance himself from the figure of Pep . “I’m not here to try to be a copy of anyone. Every coach is different. Probably, I don’t see football in the same way as the previous coach.”

I’m not here to try to be a copy of anyone

To a certain extent, it was part of the plans to continue offloading the men from the 2023 ‘treble’: Stones, Aké, Akanji, Bernardo and even a Rodrigo Hernández who had one year left on his contract. However, Maresca has not put up any obstacle to ‘dismantling’ the work carried out during the last transfer windows: of the 10 major departures this summer, as many as five involved players who had been at the club for less than two years.

Alongside Savinho , who has overtaken Julián Alvarez as the most expensive sale (88 million) in City history, Reijnders (61) and Rodri (60) have also broken into the club’s Top 5 biggest sales. If the focus is widened to the 10 biggest transfers completed by the ‘cityzen’ side, Nico González (56) also appears. In addition to these four names, there are also James Trafford , whom Leeds has made the most expensive English goalkeeper (47) of all time; and a Marmoush who has gone on loan to Tottenham with an obligation to buy —subject to conditions— set at 58 million.

The most expensive sales in Man. City history:

Savinho ($87.7 million/Tottenham)

Julián Alvarez (75 million/Atlético de Madrid)

Tijjani Reijnders (61 million/Al Qadsiah)

Rodri Hernández (Barcelona/60 million)

Raheem Sterling (56.2 million/Chelsea)

Nico González (56 million/Newcastle)

Ferran Torres (55 million/Barcelona)

Gabriel Jesus (52 million/Arsenal)

Cole Palmer ($47 million/Chelsea)

Such an amount of money brought in by all these sales has overshadowed the fact that City has spent 274 million on signings —only Chelsea (398) and Tottenham (354) have spent more— this summer. The vast majority, however, has gone toward funding the arrivals of Elliot Anderson , the most expensive signing (135) in their entire history, and Ayyoub Bouaddi , whom they have made the 18-year-old player for whom the most money (95) has ever been paid. Joining them are Detourbet (25), loaned to Monaco after being signed from their Troyes ‘affiliate’, the very young Jeremy Monga (2009), Gero Rulli (3.5) and Pierce Charles (3.5).

“It’s the market and anything can happen. We’ll see, there are still four or five days left. But, at this moment, it’s quite complicated for me to think about this,” he said ahead of tonight’s match against Crystal Palace. He did stress, however, that he would like “to have two players for each position.” Otherwise, he will look to the academy, where McAidoo, Floyd Samba or Kaden Braithwaite are pushing through.

It's the market and anything can happen

Maresca , in any case, is not satisfied... despite the fact that green shoots had begun to appear against Crystal Palace. Allan , a winger from Palmeiras , will come in to fill the gap left by Savinho after agreeing to a 40 million transfer; and Enzo Fernández could be the big ‘bombshell’ in this final stretch of the transfer window for a fee that would surpass Elliot Anderson himself as the most expensive signing in the club’s history. Four days remain in the transfer window and there is ‘fresh’ money in the Etihad’s coffers.