Our series of January transfer window wrap-ups continues with a look at the business done by Premier League title contenders Manchester City
Who arrived?
Manchester City have been fairly quiet this transfer window and added just the one player to their books. Surprisingly though, this was the 23-year-old Australian Anthony Caceres, formerly of the A-league’s Central Coast Mariners. Caceres signed for the Citizens a couple of weeks ago on an undisclosed fee, Although the central-midfielder will remain in Australia for the remainder of the campaign after being loaned to City’s partner club Melbourne City.
City let the month go by without any major signings, although Manuel Pellegrini would have surely been looking to land a centre-back due to the fact that their defence has been in shambles in the absence of injured skipper Vincent Kompany. The big news surrounding the club during this window has been the announcement that Pep Guardiola will replace the departing Pellegrini after the current season is over. The deal will surely be music to the ears of City fans who will be anxious to see what the Spaniard brings to the Etihad.
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Who departed?
Joining Caceres out on loan will be City youngsters Luke Brattan and Bruno Zuculini, who will spend the remainder of the season in the Championship, with Bolton Wanderers and Middlesbrough, respectively.
Apart from the few names who have departed on loan, City have done well to maintain the same squad that they had at the start of the season. Their main concern though will be injuries to key players like Kompany and De Bruyne. In the coming month, they will be playing in all four competitions, including league games against Leicester City, Spurs and Liverpool, the Capital One Cup final against Liverpool, an FA Cup game against Aston Villa and a crunch Champions League tie against Dynamo Kyiv.
Both the Belgians will miss a whole lot of those fixtures and will be joined on the sidelines by Wilfried Bony, Aleksandar Kolarov, Eliaquim Mangala and Samir Nasri, who are also facing injury concerns. With the window shut, City will have to dig deep within their squad if they want get through the next few weeks.
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Who can help the team?
There is no doubt that City urgently need to sign a defender and a good one at that. Martin Demichelis and Nicolas Otamendi have been disastrous at the back, causing the side to let in silly goals on numerous occasions.There are a few good buys out there who could certainly strengthen up the Sky Blue backline.
City have also been rumoured to be chasing the signature of Athletic Bilbao’s young centre-back Aymeric Laporte, who would be an excellent signing to say the least. Despite his age, the 21-year-old is nearing 150 first team appearances for Bilbao and can also be deployed at left-back when needed. Already with five goals to his name this season, while Laporte would be a top notch signing for the Sky Blues he would not come cheap, as his reported release clause is €50 Million.
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City’s lack of transfer activity has been much due Guardiola’s appointment for the next season, when the new manager will no doubt be looking to spend big in the summer transfer window.
Overall Rating
Apart from the Guardiola announcement it has been a rather dull transfer window for the Citizens. Injuries would have been the main reason to persuade Pellegrini to buy at least a couple of players. A centre-back was of prime importance while an attacking player could also add some firepower to the side. With a tight fixture list to come, City fans will be hopeful that their current crop of talent will be enough to see out this season and end Pellegrini’s reign on a high.
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