City Watch: Blues busy in the transfer market

Last week’s column was solely focused around the Club World Cup and the controversies it will come with. 

I don’t want to repeat myself, I’ve had my rant about it now, so over the summer, I’ll be reporting on how City get on in the competition, as well as their movements in the transfer market.

Since last week, there’s been a lot of movement in the market for the Blues, with four new signings all being announced since the beginning of this week. 

Let’s start with the Kevin De Bruyne replacement, as it feels like the gap he will leave will be the most difficult to replace.

City were originally interested in signing Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz as a replacement for Kevin, however, they reportedly backed out of the deal due to what the whole thing was going to cost, with an overall figure for the signing of the player alone being up to 150 million. 

It wouldn’t have surprised me to see this happen, however, with a lot of other business needed, it felt like the higher-ups at the club are going for an approach they’ve championed over the years, buy cheaper and not as established players who Pep can coach and integrate into his setup, not an area our manager struggles with, I have to add.

So, instead, the Blues have announced the signing of Rayan Cherki from Lyon for around £30 million. 

This to me seems like an absolute steal, paying almost £100 million less than Wirtz would’ve cost and a player who seems like he can fit the mould of what Pep did with De Bruyne. 

I can imagine he will be left to roam and unleash his creativity through the middle, with one of our other new signings and Rodri to sweep up behind him.

This brings me nicely onto our next signing, who will, I suspect, partner with Rodri, who will be back from injury next season. 

Around £50 million has been spent to bring in AC Milan’s midfield maestro, Tijjani Reijnders. 

I won’t lie, I haven’t seen all that much of him play, however, from what I have seen, he looks like a younger version of Ilkay Gundogan.

The club’s third signing, and one I’m particularly happy about because it means we might start to see Josko Gvardiol being played at centre back, his natural position, is left back Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolves. 

He reminds me a little of, dare I say it, Joao Cancelo; he’s got a lot of pace, he’s good on the ball, attacking and defensively minded and appears to be the whole package for what you want a left back to be.

Last but not officially least, following the sad departure of Scott Carson, one of my favourites to be honest, the Blues have signed Marcus Bettinelli from Chelsea as a third choice goalkeeper. 

I suspect the main reason for this signing is to ensure we have enough English players in the squad to reach the minimum, but I won’t be skeptical, it’s great to have him as part of the squad.

I’ve gone over those signings relatively quickly and with not too much detail, however, as all will be eligible to play in the Club World Cup, I’m sure I’ll have the chance to dive into each one a little further.

One thing I would say is that I was a little worried about what our summer transfer window would look like considering the departure of Txiki Begiristain. 

However, Hugo Viana is already proving to be a suitable replacement, signing four players for cheaper than what we would’ve paid for Forian Wirtz. 

I still think there are areas we need to improve on in terms of squad depth, but I’m sure there’s more to come.

I can also imagine that Pep will once again reinvent the way his team plays for next season. 

We’ve seen him do it before, on occasions even mid season, and it’s not something he isn’t capable of, but these new signings indicate to me that he’s got something up his sleeve and I simply cannot wait to see what it is.

Regardless, considering the season we’ve just seen, I haven’t been more confident about next year than right now, bring on the new season!