Erling bought for a high five
HISTORY beckons for Manchester City after becoming the Premier League’s most dominant force under Pep Guardiola.
City have won four of the last five title races and another triumph will see them match the record set by Sir Alex Ferguson’s great Manchester United team, when they became the only club in English football to be crowned champions in five out of six seasons.
Guardiola decided his squad needed to be freshened up after pipping Liverpool to the trophy in dramatic fashion last season.
Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko have been sold.
Ahead of yesterday’s Community Shield against Liverpool, he said: “In part I’m a little bit sad that these important players have gone.
“But it’s a business. To invest you have to sell players, otherwise you can’t be sustainable.
“I know the image of the club is that always we buy, buy, buy. But we sell too. We sell important players for big money.
“All the clubs know today selling players is not easy. All clubs want to do it but not everyone can.”
But the Blues have strengthened their hand significantly, with £65million spent to bring in Norwegian star Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund. Haaland will be expected to fill the void left by Sergio Aguero’s departure last season – and the arrival of Argentine youngster Julian Alvarez from River Plate will give Guardiola another lethal striking option.
City have also plundered Leeds to bring in midfield lynchpin Kalvin Phillips to replace veteran captain Fernandinho.
More will be expected from
Jack Grealish this season, while the creativity of Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva and Riyad
Mahrez will make City the team to beat once again.