After their draw with Brentford, Manchester City have won 12 of their previous 36 available Premier League points – three wins, three draws and six defeats. Extrapolated across a whole season, that form would earn them 38 points, enough just avoid relegation in most, but not all, top-flight campaigns this century.
Combined with three winless European ties and a Carabao Cup defeat, this has progressed from blip to problem to crisis. The sense something is fundamentally broken within the squad, and perhaps its manager, is unavoidable.
And yet City are largely continuing as normal. There were suggestions this January would bring new superstars and loosened purse strings, but these have not emerged.
Trusting in Pep Guardiola’s judgement that a rebuild was not needed this season was understandable given his track record, but things clearly need to change.
“In the summer, the club thought about [signings] and I said: ‘No, I don’t want to make any signings’,” Guardiola said before the Brentford draw.
“I relied a lot on these guys and thought I can do it again. But after the injuries, maybe we should have done it.”
Despite this, City are still not signing players who will become immediate starters, or hugely raise the level of their squad. They are investing in the future, perhaps at the expense of the present.
Here’s what their impending deals say about their plans for 2024-25 and beyond.
Abdukodir Khusanov
Set to become the first Uzbekistani Premier League footballer, Khusanov is a physically gifted centre-back; tall, quick and exceptionally strong for a 20-year-old. Guardiola’s record of developing centre-backs is remarkable, and Khusanov will benefit from that without doubt.
But to suggest he is immediately ready to start would indicate City have shifted their priorities.
Guardiola has always tried to gradually assimilate young players, and having started just 20 Ligue 1 matches for Lens since joining from Energetik-BGU of the Belarusian Premier League, it’s not a stretch to say he is an investment and loose reinforcement. A regular run of matches in an imploding side could do him significant harm.
And yet Guardiola’s comments after the Brentford match imply that Khusanov’s services will needed.
“Of course, at 0-2 we have to close it, but to close it we don’t have specific players to defend a result in the box for a long amount of time,” he said. This, if anything, has been the hallmark of his fledging career, but it still only suggests an occasional bench role. Guardiola is trusting in his current defensive corps.
Vitor Reis
Much of what has been said about Khusanov also holds true for Reis, who has reportedly agreed a £29.4m move from Palmeiras. At 19, he’s a year younger than Khusanov and has started just 16 matches in Brazil’s Serie A.
If Khusanov is more similar in profile and skillset to Ruben Dias, Reis resembles John Stones or Manuel Akanji, slighter and more comfortable progressing the ball, with the ability to move into defensive midfield if needed.
Neither are ready to regularly start for a team with serious title intentions, or even aspirations of the top four.
City’s transfer business suggests they are increasingly writing off this season as an aberration and preparing for the final two years of the Guardiola era, the start of a wider club rebuild which has long been inevitable.
But it also indicates they maintain trust in their ageing and waning stars despite seemingly declining performance. Signing two centre-backs when Kyle Walker is set to leave would be an odd choice if they still had serious trophy aspirations in 2024-25.
For all their injury problems, centre-back is perhaps the position City have the greatest depth in. Both Khusanov and Reis are signings for the future, planned pillars of coming seasons.
Omar Marmoush
Marmoush is a different prospect, midway through one of the most prolific Bundesliga seasons with 15 goals and 10 assists in 17 league games. Capable of playing on the left or off the striker, he is still most comfortable as a centre-forward, a role reserved for Erling Haaland.
Even though he is older than Haaland – 25 to 24 – Marmoush is still being brought in to provide the Norwegian support and competition, while joining a rotating cast of attacking talent across the frontline.
While he is likely to have more significant short-term impact than Reis or Khusanov, he is still not instantly guaranteed a starting berth – certainly not in his preferred position. This is another signing with the longer term in mind after City attempt to renew and rebuild for the final years of Guardiola and beyond.
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