Manchester City closes transfer spending tap — but hopes wins will keep flowing

As English top-flight football clubs splashed out €2.3bn on buying players from rivals this summer, Manchester City stood out. The Premier League and FA Cup champions parted with just €25mn for new signings, amid a long-running legal battle over alleged historic breaches of the league’s financial regulations.

The parsimony highlights a sharp change of strategy for the club, which over 11 seasons to 2019-20 spent €1.69bn on player purchases, outspending all its Premier League rivals. City — and its owner, City Football Group — are betting they can maintain the club’s remarkable dominance of English football without needing to make big signings every summer. In the 2023-24 season, the club won a record fourth consecutive Premier League title.

Yet the club remains just as focused on winning as before, according to the chief executive of City Football Group. Speaking to the Financial Times, Ferran Soriano acknowledged that the club had changed tack so decisively that it made €116mn in net gains during the summer transfer window. City agreed sales worth €141mn, including the €75mn departure of forward Julián Alvarez.

But the gains were only a “byproduct” of a strategy still focused on winning, building a strong squad and planning for player turnover well in advance, Soriano insisted.

“Our financial situation is very stable because our football situation is very stable,” Soriano said.

The club might make an “extraordinary profit” some years but not others, he added, pointing to the Alvarez sale as an example of the approach.

“We got a good offer and we had an extraordinary profit but we were not counting on it,” Soriano said. “This is important because for Manchester City the objective is to win and to be financially sustainable. It’s not to make an extraordinary profit every year. We have to assume this has ups and downs.”

The club’s strong position reflects its sticking with a long-serving core team, according to Soriano. Former football operations chief Omar Berrada left earlier this year to become chief executive of Manchester United. But Soriano said the remaining leadership — including manager Pep Guardiola and football director Txiki Begiristain — had enabled City to make a habit of generating big fees in the transfer market.

Regular changes of manager made life “very difficult” when buying and selling players, Soriano said.

“There’s an element of stability that helps us a lot,” he added. “Other teams — they change the coach every two years. Life is very difficult because you have to rethink the whole thing.”

In the background of the strategy change lies City’s continuing legal battle, more than 18 months after the league levelled in excess of 100 charges against the club, spanning several years. The league accused City of failing to provide accurate information about its finances and payments to players and managers, breaching profit and sustainability rules, and not co-operating with its investigations. The Times has reported that the case will be heard before an independent commission as soon as this month.

The stakes are high for the club, its rivals and the league. The English champions are part of a wider network of clubs under the City Football Group umbrella. The group is majority owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a billionaire member of the Abu Dhabi ruling family, who took over the club in 2008 and bankrolled a subsequent spending spree in the transfer market. US investment company Silver Lake has since taken an 18 per cent stake in the company.

City has denied the charges. Soriano declined to comment on the disputes.

However, Manchester City’s recent cautious transfer market activity contrasts with its still generous spending in other areas. The club’s wage bill rose 20 per cent year-on-year to £423mn in 2022-23. The amount was inflated by bonuses paid to players for winning the treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League that season.

City has also spent heavily on youth development — although it is earning a return on the investment. Phil Foden, a graduate of the youth academy, is one of the stars of the club’s first team. The club made €24mn through selling academy players, on top of its wider transfer market gains. They include the sale, for around €18mn, of Liam Delap to Ipswich Town this summer.

Khaldoon al-Mubarak, chief executive of Abu Dhabi investment fund Mubadala and chair of City Football Group, said the club’s academy was “producing new first-team talent and reliable ongoing financial returns”.

Andrea Sartori, founder of the Football Benchmark consultancy, suggested City’s change of tack might also reflect the pressures of toughened spending constraints for top clubs.

England’s Premier League this season is testing new squad cost rules that would cap a club’s spending on players. The rules limit total outlay to a total of 85 per cent of football revenues, plus or minus net profit or loss from player trading. The revised rules are a departure from a system that has allowed clubs to post losses of up to £105mn over three seasons. City and other clubs in the Uefa Champions League will face a similar but stricter target based on just 70 per cent of football revenues from 2025.

“Stricter regulations and [City’s] willingness to become a sustainable club might also be a driver of their sporting investment strategy,” Sartori said.

However, people close to Manchester City insisted the changing financial regulations were not an important factor in prompting this summer’s low spend in the transfer market. The club reported a net profit of £80mn for the year to June 30, 2023, up from £41mn the previous year. The 2022-23 profit resulted from a £122mn profit from trading in players.

Yet football clubs generally are becoming more professional in their attitude to the transfer market, according to Soriano. Sides were eschewing their previous gut-instinct approach in favour of a data-led approach, Soriano said. There was also an intensifying battle to identify, acquire and develop younger talent.

Human judgment remained vital to assessing whether potential recruits would make a good cultural fit, he added, but analytics would play an increasing role.

“You can’t be making acquisitions of players that are worth millions, and make decisions in minutes,” Soriano said. “This is what used to happen in football in general a decade ago. This has evolved dramatically in the right sense.”