Pep Guardiola is about to discover if he has a £42m transfer challenge at Man City

Manchester City have made an art of spinning a profit on players. To an impressive degree.

While Manchester United lose money on nearly every player they sign, City make millions on ones who have never even played for the club. This summer alone the sales of James Trafford, Shea Charles, Carlos Borges, Ade Mebude and Yangel Herrera raised over £50m and then Cole Palmer's switch to Chelsea fetched a further £40m.

But when it comes to Kalvin Phillips, City are likely going to struggle to make up half their losses let alone make any profit. If or more than likely when his time at the club comes to an end, that is.

It looked a lot like that day would come during the recently closed summer transfer window. Phillips' first season at City was a total busted flush.

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Injured for the first half and then hardly given a chance when he was fit. When a rare opportunity did come his way, Phillips tended to justify Pep Guardiola's position and display why he didn't trust him. A disastrous cameo off the bench against Leicester even threatened to help throw away a 3-0 lead.

Phillips' first of just two Premier League starts only came in the last games of the season when the title was already sewn up. When there was nothing to lose. Otherwise, he has mostly spent 2023 twiddling his thumbs on the bench.

Yet, when the transfer window opened and the inevitable speculation surrounding his future began, Phillips was bullish. He made it clear immediately he wasn't going anywhere, that he wanted to fight for his place.

"My intention is to stay there," he said in June. "We have just