Four titles, then one knee
Manchester City have spent somewhere near £300m on central midfielders this summer. The reason traces back to a single absence.
Rodri won the Ballon d’Or in 2024 and then missed most of the 2024-25 season with an ACL injury. City, who had just become the first English club to win four league titles in a row, finished outside the top two for the first time since Pep Guardiola’s debut campaign in 2016-17. Very little else about that squad had changed. The Spaniard had.
He has now left for Barcelona, and Guardiola has left too. Bernardo Silva and John Stones ran their contracts down and walked away on frees. Savio, Tijjani Reijnders, Nico Gonzalez, James Trafford and Omar Marmoush were sold for significant fees. The rebuild was never optional.
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Three signings, two of the four biggest fees in English football
Enzo Maresca moved early for Elliot Anderson, added Ayyoub Bouaddi after the 18-year-old’s World Cup with Morocco, and landed Enzo Fernandez on deadline day for a fee matching the British transfer record. Two of the four most expensive players ever bought by English clubs now sit in the same midfield, alongside the 15th most expensive.
City were not the only ones paying. Chelsea spent £117m on Morgan Rogers, Tottenham close to £200m on Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes. Selling clubs read the desperation across the league and priced accordingly.
Anderson looks the safest of the three. He won possession 306 times in the Premier League last season, at least 94 more than any other player in the division.
The case for Fernandez that Chelsea supporters missed
Fernandez is the one drawing the sneers. Two and a half years at Stamford Bridge produced league finishes of sixth, fourth and 10th, with a Conference League and a Club World Cup as the only silverware. Set against that, £125m reads as a lot.
The underlying numbers argue back. In a dysfunctional side he ranked fourth in the Premier League for expected assists (7.3) and first for secondary assists, the pass before the assist, with six. Only Bruno Fernandes played more line-breaking passes that created a chance. He also covered 20.0 kilometres of high-intensity running while his team had the ball, second only to Adrien Truffert, and made 116 runs to offer himself for a cross. Rayan Cherki, his likely partner in the final third, made 47.
None of that replaces Rodri, who topped the division for successful passes per 90 (86.7). Bouaddi is the closest stylistic match and he is 18 years old. City have not rebuilt the same team. They have built a different one, and Maresca has a season to prove that was the point.
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