Whilst fans in the wider world of football slowly begin decomposing as we continue to wait on the Premier League to announce the judgement in their 100 year long battle with Manchester City over alleged profit and Sustainability Rule breaches, the Etihad Stadium outfit are not sitting still and twiddling their thumbs.
Following on from an almost disastrous 2024/25 campaign, Pep Guardiola’s expected root and branch rebuild of the team has now begun as they eye the ludicrous riches offered by FIFA’s ridiculously named Club World Cup tournament, which features such storied sides as Aly Ahly, Auckland City, Seattle Sounders and ES Tunis to name just four I may have actually heard of.
With Gianna Infantino insisting on two summer transfer windows this year to help his presumed favourite European clubs to a weighted potential prize pot of £97 million, City have taken full advantage and as this week comes to a close they have already confirmed the captures of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Rayan Ait-Nouri and Lyon’s Rayan Cherki for a reported fee totalling £65 million, and having kept up with the Rayans, they also added Chelsea’s Marcus Bettinelli to their ranks.
Their spending is hardly over at this stage though as they continue to look to replace those that have already moved on (or will do when their contracts expire on a normal basis following the introduction of this infantile window and the bizarre deals it has led to being done), and it is fully expected that there will be even more departures next month with the futures of Kalvin Phillips, James AcAtee and Jack Grealish hugely in doubt, and they are far from alone when you look at the rumour mill speculation looking at others like Ederson, Stefan Ortega, Nathan Ake and John Stones.
On Wednesday morning, City also confirmed another speculated deal and announced the capture of AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders on a deal worth an initial fee of £46.5 million. The 26 year old, 23 capped Netherlands international, has already been tagged a Tiny Reindeer by mischievous fans, but he is an interesting prospect for the Premier League. With a return of 15 goals in 54 matches across all competitions for the Serie A side last season, he was named the division’s Midfielder of the Year, and right now, it very much looks like he will be Kevin de Bruyne’s direct replacement in the middle of the park.
Naturally, he now comes into contention to make his Club World Cup debut for the side as they take on ‘but Wydad’ FC on June 18th in Philadelphia, and plenty will be interested to see how he slots in even if most fans, maybe cruelly, are hoping the expanded competition in the United States falls flat on its overhyped face.
What will the real window bring?