Man City will avoid taking squad risk with transfer departures this summer

It would take a disaster of epic proportion to put a halt to the giddy optimism surrounding Manchester City this summer.

It's hardly surprising. When the best team in the country goes out and adds the most exciting, young striker on the planet to amend the one slight weakness in the side - how could you not be looking forward to the season to come? As City supporters welcomed Erling Haaland to Manchester last week on a lovely summer day it felt like the sun was rising on a new, somehow even better, era at the Etihad.

It's not only Haaland, either. City have also brought in what looks to be the next great South American export in Julian Alvarez and have moved swiftly to replace departed captain Fernandinho with an England favourite in Kalvin Phillips. It's been a departure from the one or two signings the club has tended to make in recent years this summer and instead been a complete shakeup to Pep Guardiola's squad.

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But that has inevitably led to departures as well. Gabriel Jesus has moved to Arsenal in the hope of finally becoming the star striker he never could quite become at City while Raheem Sterling has left for Chelsea after seven incredible years. The fact that the Blues have pretty much recouped their outlay on players with those sales makes their business look better still.

It may not be over yet, either, with plenty of speculation still running wild on potential incomings and outgoings. The talk in recent days had been that the next out of the exit door would Nathan Ake and Aleks Zinchenko.

After already bagging Sterling, Chelsea were looking to double-dip in the City sale to bring Ake back to Stamford Bridge and resolve their lack of options in defence. MEN Sport reported