Man City are one gamble away from a transfer window for the ages

There was a point this summer when there was considerable unhappiness at Manchester City sporting director Txiki Begiristain.

The club had sold fan favourite Oleksandr Zinchenko promising a replacement, and then refused to pay the asking price for their No.1 (and only realistic) target to replace him, getting gazumped by Premier League rivals Chelsea to leave themselves looking even shorter in a position where they have always felt short. Add in the failure to deny that Bernardo Silva was for sale in the wake of a very public pursuit from Barcelona and some tempers were boiling over.

By then of course, it had been months since Begiristain and City had landed the deal of the window by convincing Erling Haaland to come to Manchester rather than Madrid or Barcelona and paying a comparatively paltry £51m to sign him from Dortmund. Kalvin Phillips, Stefan Ortega, and Julian Alvarez (strictly a January signing but it was decided this summer he would join Pep Guardiola's squad) were also old news in an environment where hourly updates of constant progress are needed by some to ward off anxiety from the business that other clubs are doing.

Also read: Bernardo Silva break silence on transfer interest and staying at Man City

As the transfer window closes, Begiristain can instead expect to be congratulated on possibly one of the best summers City have ever seen. When their business is compared to that of other clubs too, it looks even better.

Left-back remains the only remaining question mark. City did move to replace Zinchenko but with £11m Sergio Gomez. The youngster has plenty of potential and his background at Barcelona's academy should ease his integration, but the fact that he was originally intended to be loaned out to