Manchester City's Failed Summer Window: What Went Wrong?

The summer transfer window of 2021 will go down as an all-timer. Messi left Barcelona for Paris, Lukaku and Ronaldo made returns to English football and their former clubs, Jack Grealish became the first £100 million English transfer, and much more. With just five days remaining in the European transfer window, many clubs have found solutions in the market to their squads’ issues. Manchester United have filled holes at right wing and center back, Chelsea captured a true goal scorer, and even Barcelona made additions. After the close of the transfer window, I’ll be grading each Premier League clubs’ business as well as a few clubs from across the continent. Today, we’re going to take a look at how and why Manchester City have had a complete failure of a window and how they could have avoided this outcome. Let’s get started.

At the start of the summer, Manchester City had one clear objective; replace the outgoing Sergio Aguero with a world-class number nine. Now, with five days remaining, City have missed out on their main target as well as a number of alternative options, leaving 18-year-old Liam Delap as the only recognized striker at the club. How did they end up in this position?

Manchester City are the reigning champions of England, with Pep Guardiola and company capturing their third title in four seasons. They also made their first UEFA Champions League Final in their history. This was the year to strengthen again for the Blues. Their main target was England captain and prolific goal-scorer Harry Kane, a signing that most agreed would make the Citizens clear favorites for the Premier League yet again, as well as adding to their chances for the Champions League. In a saga that lasted almost the entirety of the window, we now know Kane will remain a Tottenham player this season. Manchester City are reported to have made just one offer for the striker, a bid that totaled £100 million. This was never going to be enough to pry Kane from Tottenham’s grasp. Chairman Daniel Levy made it clear early in the window that Tottenham’s price of £150 million was the only fee that would get Kane out of London, despite Kane’s efforts to force a move. The Kane saga came to a close a few days ago with the player’s announcement on social media that he was happy to stay in North London as City failed to meet Tottenham’s valuation for their star man. City not only failed to make a sufficient bid for Kane, but also failed at understanding who they were working with. Daniel Levy has proven in the past that he would not let go of his star assets for anything less than their value for the player. Even with Kane pushing for the move to Manchester, Levy didn’t budge. With three more years of contractual control on Kane, Levy and Tottenham had no reason to sell, with there being no threat of Kane leaving the club any time soon. If City truly wanted the player, they would have had to pay the £150 million quoted to them. Instead, they undertook the impossible task of attempting to “negotiate” with Levy and Tottenham. No “negotiations” ever took place, with Levy refusing to respond to City’s inquiries over the past weeks. City failed to even make an improved bid for Kane, seemingly giving up on the deal when they realized Levy would not lower his price.

While the Kane saga was still in full swing, City made their move for Aston Villa’s star midfielder Jack Grealish for £100 million. This signing not only broke the British transfer record, but smashed City’s record signing by almost £40 million. However, Grealish is not a striker, or even a natural goal-scorer. Instead of prioritizing the main issue in the squad at striker, City spent over the odds for a player in a position that was completely unnecessary. Grealish is a wonderful talent and will be great for the Citizens, but the opportunity cost of the signing is obvious to see. Had City genuinely wanted to make the Kane deal happen, they never should have signed Grealish when they did. Paying the exorbitant fee for Grealish only strengthened Daniel Levy’s resolve, having proof that City had the funds to pay up for Kane. Just hours after City confirmed the signing of Grealish, a bombshell was dropped on the football world as it was announced that Lionel Messi would no longer be a Barcelona player. With City attempting to sign Messi in previous seasons as well as the player showing a strong interest in playing at the club, it seemed as though this was finally the opportunity for Messi and Pep Guardiola to be reunited, this time in Manchester. Instead, City immediately ruled themselves out of the signing, claiming that their only target was Harry Kane. Days later, Leo Messi was unveiled in Paris, joining forces with old friend Neymar and French super-star Kylian Mbappe. It is clear to see that signing Grealish was the reason City had not offered Messi a contract. The player had wanted to come to Manchester, but with the addition of Grealish, City did not have space in the squad for another winger/midfielder. After years of attempting to snatch Messi from Barcelona, City had not even tried to capture the magical Argentinian when the first and last opportunity arose. City proceeded to fail to capture Kane and have been left with a hole up front in their attack.

While City stumbled about the Kane saga, rivals strengthened. Chelsea recaptured Belgian star Romelu Lukaku from Inter Milan for £98 million, a deal that surely hurt City fans as they watched the European Champions beat them to a top class striker. Manchester United added World Cup winning center back Raphael Varane and City “reject” Jadon Sancho for a combined £100 million. And now, Manchester United seem to be adding global superstar Cristiano Ronaldo. With a few days left in the window, and the Kane deal already off, Ronaldo revealed that he wanted to leave Juventus. At first, it seemed as though Manchester City were Ronaldo’s first choice. For a 24-hour period, City were frontrunners and looked as though they would complete the signing of Ronaldo for just £25 million. However, in a massive u-turn, City pulled out of the deal. The rumored reasons are that they did not want to pay the transfer fee for the 36-year-old. This is baffling from any perspective. Ronaldo had agreed to take a massive wage cut to join the Citizens, with the agreed number being around £250,000 per-week, less than City’s star Kevin De Bruyne. Despite being at the back end of his career, Ronaldo is still putting up ridiculous goal numbers and would have solved that issue for the Citizens and more. It also would have given City more flexibility in future markets, still giving them the chance to sign starlet Erling Haaland next summer. In addition to this, it would have given the club a massive reputation boost. Ronaldo is one of the most well known names on the planet and has the most followers on social media on the globe. He would have made the club a fortune in jersey sales alone as well as adding flocks of fans from across the world. Finally, it would have been a massive double-bird to their cross city rivals Manchester United, where Ronaldo had spent some of his peak years and matured into the star he is today. The deal was a no-brainer. Yet, today Ronaldo is on his way to confirm his return to Manchester United. This is a dagger to City fans’ hearts, as they’ve had to watch as their board stumbled about this window with supreme incompetence, fumbling the signings of three separate super stars. With five days left in the window, City have no striker and no plans to get one.

On top of this, City now have a number of players unhappy with their status at the club, one being midfielder Bernardo Silva. Silva now faces the prospect of losing out on even more play time with the addition of Grealish and has made it clear that he wants to leave the club. Aymeric Laporte is another player looking for a way out as he lost his starting place to John Stones and Ruben Dias last season. It is seriously doubtful that moves will come for Silva and Laporte as the window closes, with no clubs across Europe capable of matching the value City have set for them. The club has also shopped star Raheem Sterling after an underwhelming season, despite the player having a wonderful Euro’s tournament and having no desire for a move. As well as this, yesterday, left back Benjamin Mendy was arrested and charged by police with four counts of rape and a count of sexual assualt. Mendy has been suspended by the club and will likely never play for the Citizens again, and deservedly. Though far from a key player, Mendy offered depth at City’s weakest position. Now, the Sky Blues are left with only Olexsander Zinchenko as a recognized left back. Instead of strengthening, the club will now have to deal with unhappy players and a precarious dressing room atmosphere for the upcoming season. With the players acutely aware of the missed transfer targets and the upheaval surely caused by Mendy’s arrest, there is a level of uncertainty surrounding the blue side of Manchester going into the season.

This window is not the end of the world for Manchester City. They will still score plenty of goals and challenge for the Premier League title. However, it was a missed opportunity. City could have made a statement of intent after falling short at the last hurdle in the Champions League. Instead, they have made themselves look like fools and have failed to solve any of the issues in the squad. Left back has been a problem area for years, yet there were no links for a move to strengthen the position this window. Up front, the issues at striker were clear for all to see last season, as club legend Sergio Aguero failed to make more than 10 appearances in the Premier League while Gabriel Jesus made his transition from striker to winger. These issues were predictable. Though solutions would never come easy, it is the general lack of true effort to solve the issues that is infuriating for City fans. They’ve allowed rivals to strengthen around them while they dawdled and fooled around in the market. They missed out on both Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to rivals as well as missing out on top target Harry Kane. Jack Grealish will be a welcome addition for the Citizens but will come with a sour taste knowing that it may have been him who caused City to miss out on bigger fish. City now have one clear option to solve their striker woes; Erling Haaland. However, with a £64 million release clause active next summer and Borussia Dortmund unwilling to sell this summer, City will undoubtedly face fierce competition for the Norwegian. If they do miss out on Haaland, the City board will have failed the club completely. There is no excuse for failing to capture a star goalscorer for the best team in England, especially when the world is aware of the endless wealth City possesses. And the irony? It’ll be because they refused to pay up.