How Man City have ripped up their transfer rulebook with £100m splurge after worst six months of Pep Guardiola’s reign
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MANCHESTER CITY have ripped up their transfer rulebook after the worst six months of Pep Guardiola’s reign. The reigning Premier League champions are on course to smash their record for January spending with a spree of more than £100m - which is also an admission that they got it wrong last summer.
![[Pep Guardiola kneeling dejectedly on the field.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/josep-pep-guardiola-manager-manchester-963694686.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Any club in the world would have struggled to replace Ballon d’Or winner Rodri after he suffered a season-ending knee injury in September. But the overall lack of investment in an ageing squad has come back to haunt City and surely cost them any chance of making it five titles in a row.
![[Abdukodir Khusanov, #25, celebrates during a soccer game.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/25-abdukodir-khusanov-reacts-french-965305737.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
It is a mantra of sporting directors everywhere that the winter window is a bad time to bring in players because it smacks of desperation and prices are inflated accordingly. City in particular have made a habit in the last decade ot not going big in January, only twice spending over £20m on a single player to make an immediate impact.
Those exceptions to the rule were defender Aymeric Laporte, signed from Athletic Bilbao for £57m in 2018, and striker Wilfried Bony, a £28m arrival from Swansea way back in 2015. City did make a £14.1m swoop for teenager Julian Alvarez in January 2022, but the Argentinian was one for the future and remained at River Plate on loan for the remainder of the season.
![[Soccer player celebrating a goal.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/NINTCHDBPICT000962569215.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
But Guardiola needs reinforcements now to give his team an immediate boost as well as to lay the foundations of their next winning team. Described as a “monster” and a “tank” by former colleagues, and known as The Train in his homeland of Uzbekistan, Khusanov is tipped to become one of the best centre halves in the world.
![[Omar Marmoush of Eintracht Frankfurt celebrating a goal.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/omar-marmoush-eintracht-frankfurt-celebrates-962198508_9165bb.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
