OVER THE MOON
CITY CHIEFS DELIGHTED WITH £208M SUMMER SPENDING SPREE
CITY’S top brass are said to be ‘delighted’ with their recordbreaking transfer window.
The Blues took their spending to around £208m by wrapping up the purchase of Benjamin Mendy for £49.1m yesterday.
That figure eclipsed the £195m splashed out by Real Madrid in 2009.
While critics have queried some of the transfer fees, Pep Guardiola and the Blues’ executive are cocka-hoop at landing just about all of the top targets they identified at the start of the summer.
City have brought in goalkeeper Ederson for £35m, full-backs Kyle Walker (£45m) and Benjamin Mendy (£49.1m), utility player Danilo (£26.5m), midfielder Bernardo Silva (£43m) and Brazilian prospect Douglas Luiz (£10m) in a breathless summer. And the word on the City grapevine is that they are celebrating a successful window. There could yet be one or two more deals, with the Blues still in the hunt for a centre-back – not thought to be a highprofile player – and still interested in bringing in Alexis Sanchez or Kylian Mbappe. But even if the window closed tonight, City would be satisfied. The feeling within the club is that they paid no more than the market value, in a market flush with cash, and in which Romelu Lukaku moved for £75m.
And, apart from Dani Alves – who made a last-minute U-turn to join Paris St Germain – they grabbed the players they wanted from the outset.
And the signing of Danilo, who will compete for the right back, left back and defensive midfield positions, means the Blues can trim one player’s wage off their squad bill.