Last summer, Manchester City had an uncharacteristically quiet transfer window and paid a heavy price for it. After spending only £20 million ($27m) to sign Savinho while re-signing Ilkay Gundogan on a free, City went on to have their worst season in nine years. Pep Guardiola's side did not just surrender their Premier League crown - they finished third on 71 points, the lowest points total in the serial-winning coach's 16-year career. City also failed to reach the last 16 of the Champions League in another unwanted first for the Catalan, while they failed to win a major trophy for the first time since Pep's debut campaign in 2016-17.
Guardiola has since recognised that he made a mistake in showing loyalty to the core of players who won four league titles in a row, and last week chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak admitted, "last summer we probably should have been more aggressive in some of the changes we needed to do. We didn't do that and that ended up costing us this year."
City began their overdue rebuild in January by spending £180 million ($243m) on Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis, and Khaldoon has pledged for the overhaul to continue at a frenetic pace: "We have clearly identified who exactly are the targets, in what positions, and we have our clear number one option, our clear number two option. And we'll go about our business, and it will be very clear, very swift."
City need to act fast as they have two transfer windows to operate in, one which closes on June 10 before the Club World Cup begins, and another that runs between June 16 and September 1. As Khaldoon suggested they would, the club have wasted no time in getting going, with talks ongoing regarding moves for AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders and Lyon forward Rayan Cherki, while Wolves left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri has also emerged as a priority target.
More big-money deals will be necessary as City begin the daunting task of finding a successor for Kevin De Bruyne and addressing the other concerns around their ageing squad, which appeared to lose the insatiable hunger that used to define it.
GOAL sets out the key transfer decisions Guardiola and new sporting director Hugo Viana need to make to ensure the squad is fully equipped to fight to win their Premier League title back after this summer...
