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The January transfer window has traditionally been quiet for Manchester City , with Aymeric Laporte being the last player to be signed in winter and make an immediate contribution to the first team. That was six years ago. In each of the past three years, City have dipped into the market to agree deals for Argentinian prospects to arrive at later dates: Julian Alvarez in 2022, Maximo Perrone in 2023, Claudio Echeverri in 2024.
But their needs are more immediate this year and they are expected to do business to help turn their season around. City have money to spend having made a £139million ($177m) profit on player sales in their most recent accounts, so there is a very good chance that this will be a much busier January than usual. What positions will they be looking at in January? As my colleague David Ornstein has reported in the wider Transfer DealSheet , City are expected to be active in the January market.
Between the winter and summer windows they intend to strengthen in defence, at No 6/No 8 and up front. It is premature to say who will be signed and in what order, but work is being done behind the scenes and conversations are now taking place with clubs and player representatives. Director of football Txiki Begiristain may be leaving City next summer but he continues to lead the process, in conjunction with manager Pep Guardiola and other relevant personnel.
Advertisement City are in rude financial health and did not spend heavily last summer, so money is not an issue. That said, they will not want to spend for the sake of it and recruits of the level City would be seeking to bolster their first team are not easy to obtain mid-season. That means loans should not be discounted, although in an ideal world, they would likely favour younger players for the longer term ahead of older — potentially high-cost — stop-gap solutions.
That will all depend on the options available to them and negotiations. Despite City’s recent slump, manager Pep Guardiola is not going to be sacked and there is no suggestion he might walk away. He has recently signed a two-year contract and will have known a rebuild was required before committing to that deal.
Which players do they want? City had decided last summer they would wait until 2025 for a squad overhaul, partly because many of the players who were attracting interest last summer — Ederson , De Bruyne, Walker, Bernardo Silva — did not leave. Manager Pep Guardiola also felt the squad did not need an extra player to replace Alvarez following the surprise return of Ilkay Gundogan , which is why he did not sanction a move for Celtic ’s Kyogo Furuhashi . The Japan international does not appear to be a target for January.
Because of the club’s woes this season, caused largely by fitness problems and the psychological impact of so many setbacks, City have decided to start the refresh earlier than normal. They know the winter window is traditionally a difficult one, and they might have problems getting the players they want. But rather than wait until summer they are ready to move now.
Who will they be looking to sell? Even if City were to bring new faces in, with Guardiola having said they need more bodies to deal with the demands of the football calendar, they are unlikely to ship a few out at the same time. There could be significant movement at the end of the season, with Ederson, Walker, De Bruyne and Gundogan among a few senior players who might leave as part of a squad overhaul, but major outgoings do not seem to be on the agenda this winter. Will anyone move out on loan? It is possible some young players could go out on loan.
But any other departures from a depleted squad, even in the short term, would be a surprise. What moves have they made already? Echeverri will arrive in January, having been signed for £12.5million from River Plate 12 months ago.
The 18-year-old Argentinian arrives with a lofty reputation, having broken into the River first team. But while he will join Guardiola’s squad for the second half of this season, he is expected to be on the fringes of the team for the time being and could be loaned out in summer. His situation could be similar to that of Perrone, who is highly rated by City coaches, spent the second half of the 2022-23 season with the team — and even made two appearances off the bench — but has been out on loan since.
Who will make the key decisions in January? Txiki Begiristain remains the director of football until the end of the season, and while his replacement, Hugo Viana, is expected to work alongside him over the coming months to help smooth the summer transition, that is not expected to be until after the transfer window closes. What is their PSR position? Compared to a lot of teams, it’s fantastic. Their recent accounts highlighted that they have made £405m from player sales over the past five years, including a profit of £139m last summer.
Those figures do not include around £100m for the sales of Alvarez and Joao Cancelo , which were concluded after the accounting period finished. City have the money and the PSR headroom. Crucially, they also have the intention to use it.
What sort of budget do they have? The exact numbers are not yet known, but City have the desire to get players in. And, while they are always keen to stick to their own valuations of players, it is safe to say that they will be making serious efforts to make some much-needed changes. What is the manager’s priority? It has to be a central midfielder with a physical presence and mobility, as well as the kind of technical prowess that City’s players need.
Not easy to find. But even if City get everybody back fit apart from Rodri in the coming weeks, they would still need that profile of midfielder in the squad, and that is something the club recognises. (Top photos: Claudio Echeverri and Kevin De Bruyne ; Getty Images).
