Half a billion euros, and one position untouched
Nobody in England spent like Manchester City this summer. 526 million euros went out of the door, three of those midfielders costing north of 100 million each. The brief was to close the book on the Pep Guardiola decade and refresh a squad that had visibly run out of legs.
The midfield job is finished. Ayyoub Bouaddi, Anderson and Enzo Fernandez all arrived to share the load left by Rodri, a Ballon d’Or winner and the standout player at the last World Cup. Add Mateo Kovacic and Nico O’Reilly and Enzo Maresca has five bodies for two slots in his 4-2-3-1. One slot on that team sheet got no attention at all.
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Behind Erling Haaland there is nobody
Every other role at City is doubled up. The No 9 shirt is not. Julian Alvarez used to deputise there, then Omar Marmoush had a spell. Both are gone, and nothing replaced them.
Last season the gap never got tested. Haaland missed one match. The season before is the one that should worry them: 12 games sat out, a problem in December and a second in January, exactly when the English calendar turns brutal. Build a career on repeated high-speed sprinting and the body eventually files a complaint, at any age.
Semenyo, Ndiaye or Allan as the emergency answer
The cover question is only half of it. The other half is rest. Somebody has to take the cup ties and the dead rubbers so Haaland does not play 55 games. Maresca’s answer will be a winger shoved into the middle. Semenyo, Ndiaye and Allan are the names that make some sense, and not one of them is a penalty-box centre-forward.
City’s reasoning holds up on its own terms. No credible No 9 signs up for ten minutes a month, and the backup striker market takes real money for very little football. Still, spending 526 million and finishing the window hoping one man’s hamstrings hold is a peculiar kind of planning. The first serious injury will settle the argument.
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