Why Your Club SHOULD Or SHOULDN'T Buy From Manchester City

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If your team was buying a player from Manchester City would you be excited or worried? Are they top quality or past their peak? In the interest of a two-sided argument, Matt breaks down why your club  should or shouldn’t be buying from Manchester City this summer.

Transcript

00:00Right then, here's a question for you. If your team was buying a player from Manchester City,

00:04would you be excited that someone with such a successful club on their CV was joining,

00:08or worried that City didn't see them as good enough to keep and now you're actually getting

00:11some dead wood? Well, unlike most hypothetical questions on the internet today, I'm actually

00:16going to be exploring both sides of the argument and tell you why your team should or shouldn't

00:21be buying from Manchester City this summer.

00:26Now, this idea hasn't just come out of the blue, by the way, pun intended.

00:30But, mainly because it seems like a lot of clubs do their shopping in Manchester.

00:34In fact, in the last decade, the club have made around £750 million from player sales,

00:38second only to Chelsea in England. So, back to the question at hand, and let's go with the

00:43positive angle to begin with, and why you should be buying players from Man City.

00:47As a baseline expectation, the chances are you'll be getting a technically very, very proficient

00:52footballer. Honestly, everyone from the best academy prospect to the best player on the team

00:56is going to be a serious baller. They'll possess good ball control, technique, and an immensely

01:01high level of tactical understanding because they've spent more than 20 minutes having their

01:05ear chewed off by Pep Guardiola.

01:07Of course, some players are better than others, but as a group, they'll have a much higher

01:15level than the majority of the league.

01:17On top of this, the club has cultivated a winning mentality. Regardless of how much money

01:22has been spent on new players over the years, that doesn't always guarantee success.

01:26So the club have obviously worked on building and maintaining a level of performance that

01:30ensures they will win. Swiss international Manuel Akanji even said so himself upon joining the

01:35club, stating, you feel it in the changing room and from the whole club that the goal is to win

01:40as many titles as possible. You know what? Having read that out loud on the list of generic new

01:45signing statements, that has to be right up there. Anyway, I'm sure you'll be ready to point out that

01:50Manuel and the boys didn't quite manage to win a trophy this season, but these players have seen

01:55more silverware in the last few years than most professional players could only dream of.

01:59The long and short of this is that being technically, tactically, and mentally proficient

02:03pretty much goes for every player across the board because they've either been bought in and taught

02:07this at a young age from the academy or they've been bought into the first team because they've

02:11exhibited these traits at the highest level already at other clubs. But it's actually the younger

02:17players I want to look at in the transfer shop window because I think they are the best and most

02:21realistic signings a team could make. And here's why. So number one, City sell some really good

02:28players way before their prime. And this isn't a case of the club not knowing how good players

02:32X, Y and Z were going to be. It's just a case of a player being really good, but not getting

02:37opportunities, being really good, but needing to be sold for PSR reasons or being really good and

02:42not quite as good as a big money signing. I mean, look at Cole Palmer, Douglas Luiz, Liam DeLapp,

02:49Jadon Sancho. Well, the Borussia Dortmund version of Jadon Sancho. All of them have gone on to be

02:54key players in their side success or even earned big transfers to top clubs that can rival City in

02:59the Champions League. These are the players that attacks can be built around. Heck, even the whole

03:03team can be built around them. When I watch Karl Palmer, it seems like leaving City actually was

03:08the best move because although he could have stayed and been a squad player winning lots of trophies,

03:13he's now the main man at Chelsea and playing with more freedom than any other City player.

03:17In fact, if you're a City fan right now, a snap decision is on the table. Would you rather have Foden or

03:22Paul Palmer in your starting XI? Maybe you could even leave your answer to this down in the comments

03:27section. But honestly, there seems to be a point where players decide to leave City early-ish on in their

03:33career when they still haven't had this sense of freedom and creativity restrained to a point where

03:37it can't be recovered and it actually works out. Basically, you need to get your Cole Palmers out of

03:42City before they turn into a Phil Foden or Jack Grealish. Don't get me wrong, Phil Foden's unbelievable,

03:47but could we be seeing him being even better elsewhere? Potentially. But the second reason

03:53to buy from City is that the prices are usually good for what you get in two ways, both in the

03:58ability like we've discussed, but also for sell on value, something that many clubs are now factoring

04:03into their transfer discussions. For example, we spoke about Palmer being very good and £40 million

04:08worth, but it's the ones who leave under the radar that can then be worth big money to clubs in the

04:13Premier League and even the Championship. Look at Morgan Rodgers. He cost Middlesbrough a million

04:17pounds in 2023 and one year later they sell them to Villa for up to £16 million and he'd probably go

04:23for triple that now. The same goes for Romeo Lavia, who had played just twice for City in cup competitions,

04:29went to Southampton for around £10 million in 2022, and then one year later he moves on to Chelsea for £53

04:35million. That's a huge profit. I mean, the only reason Ipswich couldn't have arguably got way more than

04:41their £30 million for Liam De Lappe is that that amount was in the relegation release clause in his

04:45contract, but the rest of the list is endless in terms of turning a profit. Pedro Porro brought big

04:50money in for Sporting, James Trafford the same for Burnley it looks like, and I'd stretch this out to

04:55Jadon Sancho too, who signed for Dortmund for £8 million and then was sold for £73. I mean, the caveat

05:01here is that Dortmund also helped to develop him over a period of four years. It's still great profit, it's just

05:06not as quick of a turnaround as with the other players. My point is that there are first-team quality

05:11players ready to come straight in and make a difference both on the pitch and on the balance

05:14sheet. But the final reason for buying City players is that Pep wants a small squad next season. They

05:20signed a few already, so there's plenty to offload. I mean, look at the squad. You'd say that Jack

05:25Grealish is definitely on the way out. So is Karl Walker, potentially Bernardo Silva, Ederson,

05:29Gundogan, even Stones and Ake could be axed if their injury worries persist. Having said all that though,

05:35this is the flip side of this argument. As all of those players I've just named as potentially

05:39leaving City in the summer, you'll notice, are the experienced first-teamers. And that comes

05:43with a big question for me. Why are they being sold? There's the obvious argument that some of

05:48them are the wrong side of 30, 31, 32, and I get that, but not all of them are. I mean,

05:53in previous years, the likes of João Cancelo, Calvin Phillips, I'm Rick Laporte, Raheem Sterling,

05:57Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko, these guys all left in their 20s and haven't returned to the same level.

06:03Could it be a case of playing City's way absolutely knackers them out and they see a steeper drop-off in their

06:08physical attributes? Maybe. Or maybe the reason is they were either not quite good enough for City

06:14or just not quite good enough in general. Otherwise, City wouldn't have let them go.

06:19Of course, it's not an exact science, but I can only think of a handful of indisputable first-teamers

06:24that have gone on to better things after Manchester City. Those being Lior Sane, Ferran Torres,

06:30and Julian Alvarez. The latter two definitely benefiting from a little more freedom and consistency in their play.

06:36It almost leads to this. Would you rather sign an unproven youngster or a well-known experienced

06:41player, assuming they are in the same position with the same profile? I feel like the answer is

06:45the experienced player, apart from if you're signing from City. By experienced, by the way,

06:50I mean first-teamer, not ridiculously old. So maybe shouldn't is too strong of a word when it comes to

06:56City's older players. But my takeaway from this would be that caution may be the best policy,

07:01as even though on the surface signing a big-name player from them seems like a good idea,

07:06there's more to it than meets the eye. Kind of like a Transformer.

07:09Anyway, if Grealish and Phillips were returned to Villa and Leeds respectively, would they be the

07:13same players that left? Both are 29 years old, by the way, so it's not some retirement homecoming

07:18party. They've still got a considerable chunk of their careers left. As it turns out, I actually think

07:23both of these players would still be brilliant in their boyhood clubs, but that's just a hunch.

07:27Basically, all of this is to say that as soon as someone shows enough to get into the first team,

07:31but not enough they won't be replaced by a big, new, expensive signing, that is the one to go and

07:36get. At the minute, it seems like Nico O'Reilly is that guy, James McAtee too. But by this time next

07:42year, it could be someone else altogether. Those two are getting to that crossroads I mentioned earlier,

07:46that seems to appear at pretty much the feet of every talented youngster that comes through the door at

07:50City. You either stay and get minutes where you can, or you leave and try to make a good go of it

07:55elsewhere. I have no doubt those two will be good, but they've literally just watched Kevin

07:59De Bruyne leave, Gundogan could be leaving, there's an opportunity to fill both of their boots,

08:04and then through the door walk not one, but two brand new midfielders in the shape of Riders and

08:09Cherki. These levels are absolutely insane. Well, that's it from me and my thoughts for today.

08:15Subscribe for more, and I'll see you next time.

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