After winning the European Cup for the first time and getting the triple, Manchester City is doing better than ever. That made it possible for the Blues to win the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. They now have the prize they’ve been wanting for a long time.
If you look online, though, you can see that people are getting antsy about the lack of transfers at the Etihad. Mateo Kovacic has joined, Ilkay Gundogan has left, and Declan Rice will join Arsenal.
This week, CEO Ferran Soriano said, “When we don’t like a deal, we walk away. We don’t freak out.” In the same way that Pep Guardiola often tells fans in the first few months of the season that titles are not won early on, City’s bosses will say that transfer windows are not “won” or “lost” in the first week of July.
Look at how City started last season without Manu Akanji or Sergio Gomez. Both of them came late in the game, but Akanji was especially important in helping the team win the treble. City won’t be too worried about their moves so far.
But if you look around the Premier League, you can see that other teams are making moves faster to improve their teams. Liverpool moved quickly to sign Alexis Mac Allister, who won the World Cup with Brighton, in a deal worth an initial £35 million. With the expected arrival of Dominik Szoboszlai from RB Leipzig, Liverpool’s summer spending is now expected to reach close to £100 million.
The Liverpool Echo and other sources say that the Reds will use the winger Szoboszlai’s £60 million release option to continue rebuilding their attack after Roberto Firmino left. They will try not to have the same problems as last season and will try to fight for the title again.
Since they dropped out of the Champions League, their early moves in the transfer window show that they want to be a bigger threat next season and are willing to spend money to do so.
Last season, Arsenal finished second, five points behind City. They know that even though they had a bad finish, they weren’t too far behind the Blues, and they will regret the six points they lost in the two games against City. They also need to add strength now that European football is back on their schedule.
Kai Havertz came from Chelsea for £65m to give Gabriel Jesus a backup in attack, and Declan Rice is expected to join after City dropped out of the race. Including add-ons, he will cost £105 million, so Arsenal will have to spend at least £170 million on their summer rebuild to catch City.
Liverpool and Arsenal have spent close to £265 million on just four players, which shows that they aren’t the only teams trying to get better and stop City from winning the treble again. Tottenham paid £40 million for James Maddison, and Manchester United will pay £60 million for Mason Mount from Chelsea. Newcastle is preparing for the Champions League by buying AC Milan player Sandro Tonali for a reported £52 million. This summer, Chelsea has continued to make deals that are uncertain and spend a lot of money. At this point, no one knows who will start for them next season.
Compare those amounts to the £25 million that City is currently spending on Mateo Kovacic. However, if a player leaves or someone like Josko Gvardiol becomes available, that amount will likely go up.
Soriano said that City won’t worry, but they will also expect everyone else to get better next season. Even though City were great, the fact that Chelsea, Tottenham, and Liverpool were mostly bad all season helped them.
Guardiola always says that the next season will be harder than the last, and the early signs this summer suggest that he will be right again in 2023.
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