The Good And The Bad: Rating Manchester City’s Transfer Market Activity In January

The January transfer window is done and dusted, with Premier League clubs unsurprisingly being involved in the thick of things. But while clubs like Newcastle United, Everton and Aston Villa were among the busiest in the window, Premier League champions Manchester City were among the quietest. Despite that, if you bet on EPL, you would know that Manchester City are still the overwhelming favourites to win the title. No matter, what side of the argument you fall, there have even been reports from premiere league betting in Zambia of strangers from both sides getting together to watch the game – something that is a rarity in the competitive world of football.

Here, at The 4th Official, we will take a deeper look at Manchester City’s activity and rate their performance in the recently concluded January transfer window.

Incomings

Manchester City only signed one player in the January transfer window, in the form of Julian Alvarez. The Argentine forward was signed from River Plate in a reported deal worth around €17 million.

The addition of Alvarez made sense, given the dearth of strikers in the first-team. Indeed, Manchester City have operated the entirety of the season without a centre forward so far, mainly banking on the free-flowing attacking trifecta consisting of players like Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling, Riyad Mahrez, Gabriel Jesus and Jack Grealish.

Alvarez, to that end, is a recognized forward who has enjoyed immense success at River Plate, scoring 36 goals while providing 25 assists in just 96 competitive appearances.

However, Manchester City have made the decision to loan back Alvarez back to River Plate until the end of the Premier League season. It was a slightly questionable decision, given any injury crisis could see Man City struggle with productivity in the second half of the campaign.

At the same time, a January move to the Premier League might have given the Argentine the additional time to get himself settled under the new conditions before making a fresh start next season.

Outgoings

While we have already covered Julian Alvarez’s return to River Plate, Manchester City have gotten rid of multiple players in the January transfer window.

The most notable one was Ferran Torres. The Spaniard found it challenging to become an established starter under Pep Guardiola. Pep was going to make things even more difficult for Torres by signing a new centre forward in the summer.

As such, a mid-season move to Barcelona might be a logical decision for all three parties involved, with Man City, in particular, being boosted financially ahead of a busy summer that could see them splash the cash on a star forward like Harry Kane or Erling Haaland.

Other departures from Etihad include Philippe Sandler’s free transfer to Feyenoord, a sensible move given the fact that the defender had made only two appearances since joining Man City in 2018.

The same can be said for Patrick Roberts, who joined Sunderland on a free transfer. Part of the Man City setup since 2015, the winger had featured in three games for the senior team but will now be hoping to make a breakthrough by helping Sunderland win promotion back to the Championship during the second half of the campaign.

Manchester City Performance Rating: 7.5/10