Manchester City combine winning and profit to continue on path to self-sufficiency

Manchester City’s controlled summer of buying and selling has turned them into the net spend kings of the 'big six' and led to one of the most fruitful transfer windows in the club’s history.

Not only did the champions land one of the best No 9s in world football, Erling Haaland, they also revamped the first team squad and made a handsome profit in excess of £50 million ($58.4m).

From the outside, the transfer activity at City might have appeared a little frenzied, yet nothing could be further from the truth.

The transfer brains trust comprising chairman Khaldoon Mubarak, manager Pep Guardiola, director of football Txiki Begiristain, chief football operations officer Omar Berrada, and City Football Group CEO Ferran Soriano, set about a surgical renewal of the first team squad. This included selling young players who were either not going to make Guardiola’s team sheet or had run out of patience in their attempt to do so.

The published sums for the purchases and sales are ball park figures with both buying and selling clubs notoriously coy about the fees and the size of add-ons included in any deal.

However, what is clear is that City - a club habitually criticised for buying success - made a big profit on transfers, which will not only help in their quest for self-sufficiency but also puts them in a strong position to attack the next few windows with confidence and certainty.

In the last two windows alone the Academy, run by Premier League winner Jason Wilcox, has produced £60m in profit. This summer City were the only side in the Premier League’s ‘big six’ with a negative net spend. They banked around £55m.

Far from their reputation for throwing cash around, City are the English top flight’s second lowest spenders in