Manchester City has truly outdone itself this winter, splurging around £370m in the transfer window—up from a mere £100m last season! The Citizens’ spending was almost as massive as what the other 19 Premier League clubs spent altogether, and though it doesn’t match the £815m record of 2023, it’s still a huge leap forward.
The highlight? A stunning £50m signing of midfielder Nico Gonzalez from Porto just before the deadline, which pushed City’s total outlay to about £180m. With manager Pep Guardiola given full backing to fix the team’s faltering form after a rough November and December—where they lost six out of eight league games—City is making a bold statement. This winter spending is now the second-highest ever, just behind Chelsea’s £275m splurge in 2023.
City’s not stopping there. They also brought in:
- Omar Marmoush from Eintracht Frankfurt for £59m,
- Vitor Reis from Palmeiras for £29.6m,
- Abdukodir Khusanov from Lens for £33.6m,
- And even Claudio Echeverri for £12.5m, although he’s already loaned back to River Plate.
Despite this jaw-dropping spending of around £180m, their net spend sits at just £67m, thanks to the departures of Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid and Joao Cancelo to Al-Hilal. It’s not every day you see City opening their wallet in winter, but this is the biggest outlay since their £225m summer window in 2017.
Football finance guru Kieran Maguire broke it down on BBC Radio 5 Live:
“From a financial perspective, City are in a really strong position. With the rules allowing a loss of up to £105m over three years, they’ve likely made around £160-170m profit from player sales and bonuses from Europe and trophies. And those 115 charges they face? They relate to a period way back in 2009-2018. When it comes to a judgment, there might be a complete reset on what they can spend next.”
Transfer deadline day itself was a bit of a rollercoaster. It was quiet until 18:00 GMT when Brighton sparked some action. Brighton loaned striker Evan Ferguson to West Ham and later snapped up 19-year-old forward Stefanos Tzimas from Nuremberg for £20.8m.
Then came a twist with Chelsea’s Axel Disasi. Initially keen to stay and fight for his place, he was told it was best to leave. Both Aston Villa and Tottenham showed interest, but Spurs quickly cooled off. After some back and forth by his agents, Disasi ended up with a loan deal at Aston Villa, though that deal was still pending confirmation by the deadline. Villa also bagged Spanish midfielder Marco Asensio on loan from PSG in the final hours.
Other late moves saw Tottenham signing France Under-21 forward Mathys Tel on loan from Bayern Munich and Crystal Palace securing full-back Ben Chilwell on loan from Chelsea.
Meanwhile, Manchester United kept things very low-key, bringing in only two players—defender Patrick Dorgu for £25m from Lecce and 18-year-old Ayden Heaven from Arsenal—while letting big names like Antony and Marcus Rashford head out on loan.