Man City transfer warning to Premier League looks more than a threat

You have to go back 18 years for the last time Manchester City spent as little in the transfer market.

As recently as 2018, Pep Guardiola welcomed only one major addition as the club baulked at paying over the odds to bring Jorginho into their midfield as a long-term Fernandinho successor. However, the new arrival was a record £60million deal for Leicester forward Riyad Mahrez and that summer was on the back of two years of almighty spending to build a squad capable of smashing Premier League records.

Savinho is between a third and a half of that money depending on future payments, and such small investment has not been seen since 2006 when around £4m was spent on Andreas Isaksson, Bernardo Corradi, Joe Hart, and Dietmar Hamann. As City chase a fifth league title in a row, they are doing the opposite of breaking the bank with meagre spending against significant income in player sales.

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Such a drop-off inevitably leads to questions about how seriously City are taking their title challenge, as fans of all colours wonder about the looming Premier League charges as they try to work out the bigger picture. The club's chairman, however, already forecast what would happen at the beginning of the window.

“I think the level of manoeuvrability that was in place before that allowed teams to do what they were able to do in the past, is much more restricted this year and that’s going to be reflected, I believe, this summer,” he said in his annual interview with club media.

It was taken at the time as a threat as City