'12 over 30' - Man City have changed their priority in the transfer market

Recent transfer windows for Manchester City have been judged on who has stayed as much as who has come in.

The club have chalked up significant victories in keeping Bernardo Silva, Erling Haaland, Kyle Walker, Ederson and others at the clubs in the last few years even if not everyone has been counting, because all have been seen as essential to keep the winning machine whirring. City have already possessed a title-winning squad so as important to build on it has been to preserve it.

This year, things have changed. Kevin De Bruyne is also in the final six months of his contract but there is little of the panic that Liverpool fans have over Mo Salah, Virgil Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold because there is not a consensus that City must keep De Bruyne; as incredible as he has been, he needs to show that he can still be at that level consistently for the length of any new deal.

Whatever the state of contracts, pretty much everyone in the squad is in the same position of having to prove their continuing worth in the future rebuild to Guardiola. It is as the squad was in 2016 before the manager arrived, or the following year when it was quickly decided that an overhaul was necessary.

Guardiola dropped into a recent press conference that he had 12 players over 30 in his squad, and while that is not yet true it will be by September 2025. It smacks of a statistic that has been brought up in squad planning meetings as Txiki Begiristain oversees the start of the next version of this City squad.

That isn't to say that all of those players will be jettisoned for younger models, but the club are aware - as indeed are anyone with eyes that has watched them this season - that the team is looking its age and that fresh legs are