How Man City have ripped up their transfer rulebook with £100m splurge after worst six months of Pep Guardiola’s reign

MANCHESTER CITY have ripped up their transfer rulebook after the worst six months of Pep Guardiola’s reign.

The reigning Premier League champions are on course to smash their record for January spending with a spree of more than £100m – which is also an admission that they got it wrong last summer.

Any club in the world would have struggled to replace Ballon d’Or winner Rodri after he suffered a season-ending knee injury in September.

But the overall lack of investment in an ageing squad has come back to haunt City and surely cost them any chance of making it five titles in a row.

It is a mantra of sporting directors everywhere that the winter window is a bad time to bring in players because it smacks of desperation and prices are inflated accordingly.

City in particular have made a habit in the last decade ot not going big in January, only twice spending over £20m on a single player to make an immediate impact.

Those exceptions to the rule were defender Aymeric Laporte, signed from Athletic Bilbao for £57m in 2018, and striker Wilfried Bony, a £28m arrival from Swansea way back in 2015.

City did make a £14.1m swoop for teenager Julian Alvarez in January 2022, but the Argentinian was one for the future and remained at River Plate on loan for the remainder of the season.

But Guardiola needs reinforcements now to give his team an immediate boost as well as to lay the foundations of their next winning team.

ABDUKODIR KHUSANOV 

Described as a “monster” and a “tank” by former colleagues, and known as The Train in his homeland of Uzbekistan, Khusanov is tipped to become one of the best centre halves in the world.

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Khusanov, 20, was City’s first signing of the window when he joined from Lens for £33.6m after just 31 appearances for the French club.

Khusanov has gone straight into Guardiola’s squad and will become the first player from Uzbekistan to play in the Premier League – the 118th different nationality to be represented.

Lens signed him for just £84,000 from Belarus minnows Energetik-BGU after he was part of his country’s historic triumph in the Under-20 Asian Cup in March 2023 and played in the U20 World Cup later in the year.

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City have splashed out  £29.6m to bring in the right-footed teenage defender from Brazilian club Palmeiras,

And in a sign that Guardiola really wants to shake up his defensive options immediately, the Premier League champions declined Palmeiras’ request to let Reis stay on loan until the end of the season.

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Like Khusanov, Reis has very limited first-team experience, with only 17 appearances for Palmeiras but was named in the Brazilian League Team of the Year for 2024.

And the Brazil Under-17 international, who can play at centre back, right back or even left back,  has been compared to Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea legend Thiago Silva.

OMAR MARMOUSH

The Egypt international is set to be the most exciting arrival at the Etihad – and perhaps the most important, after the summer sale of Alvarez to Atletico Madrid left City short in attack.

Liverpool and a number of other big European clubs have been tracking the Eintracht Frankfurt star after he backed up his breakout campaign of 2023/4 with a scintillating start to the current campaign.

Marmoush has racked up an astonishing 20 goals and 14 assists in 26 appearances for Eintracht. With 15 goals and 10 assists in the Bundesliga alone put him second in goal contributions in the top five European leagues, behind only compatriot Mohamed Salah.

Marmoush has played mainly as centre forward this season but is also effective from the left and as a No 10/second striker, giving City a whole range of new attacking options.

He is believed to be available for £67m but Frankfurt are under no pressure to sell after receiving £72m from PSG for Randal Kolo Muani in the summer.

ANDREA CAMBIASO

If City push ahead with a deal for the versatile Juventus defender, it really will be a statement of intent.

Juve are understood to have ruled out selling the Italy international, 24, in January unless they receive an offer they can’t refuse – which could mean something in the region of £67m.

Cambiaso has been touted as a ready-made replacement for Kyle Walker if the England right back moves on in the next fortnight, most likely to AC Milan.

But Cambiaso has been used mostly as a left back this season and is more like former City star Joao Cancelo in his ability to play on either flank, in midfield and even as a winger.

Even if City decide not to pursue Cambiaso in January, they are set to spend more than they ever have in a winter window.

It really is a season of change at the Etihad, with director of football Txiki Begiristain leaving the club at the end of the campaign after masterminding transfer strategy for 13 years.

Hugo Viana will arrive from Sporting Lisbon in the summer to replace Begiristain.

But City and Guardiola have not been able to wait that long to begin the rebuild of the stellar squad that brought unprecedented glory – until the recent extraordinary collapse.