A 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield isn't just a bad day at the office. For a club built on the kind of sustained dominance Manchester City have shown over the past decade, it's a flashing warning light — and Enzo Maresca knows it.
"We already knew before the game what we had to do," Maresca said after the Cardiff thrashing. "We are very clear about what we have to do and, for sure, we are going to do something before it closes." That's not the language of a manager tinkering at the edges. City need structural reinforcement, and they need it before the Premier League kicks off.
The midfield math doesn't add up
Losing Pep Guardiola was always going to reshape this club. Losing Bernardo Silva compounds it. Losing Rodri — the Spanish midfielder on his way to Barcelona for €60 million plus €16.5 million in add-ons — could break the whole equation. Jamie Carragher publicly said City had to keep him. They didn't.
Elliot Anderson arrived as the most expensive signing in the club's history at €137 million. He may not be enough on his own. The 18-year-old Moroccan Ayyoub Bouaddi is closing in on a move from Lille for nearly €100 million — a player Maresca was openly pushing to get through the door faster. "The sooner the new signings arrive, the better," he said plainly.
Then there's Tijjani Reijnders, heading out for €61 million. His departure frees up funds, but it also strips another layer from a midfield that was already being rebuilt from scratch. The money in, money out logic only works if what comes in is actually better than what left.
Enzo Fernández at €140 million?
Chelsea reportedly set a deadline last Friday for bids on the Argentine, with an asking price of €140 million. That's not a figure you spend on a squad player. If City are seriously considering it, they're looking at a complete midfield overhaul in a single window — and the total outlay for the summer already sits at around €180 million before Bouaddi or Fernández are factored in.
City's spending power through the City Football Group has never really been in question. What's in question now is whether money alone can paper over a transition this significant — new manager, new system, no Guardiola, no Rodri, potentially no Bernardo. Arsenal's performance in Cardiff suggested other clubs have already started probing the gaps.
- Rodri sale: ~€76.5 million total to Barcelona
- Reijnders departure: €61 million
- Anderson signing: €137 million
- Bouaddi target fee: ~€100 million
- Enzo Fernández asking price: €140 million
Hugo Viana is running the sporting department now, and the expectation is that the Rodri and Reijnders money gets reinvested fast. But reinvesting quickly in a window that's almost shut, for a new manager still explaining how he wants to play — that's where things get complicated. Maresca's City project hasn't just started slowly. It's started with a deficit.
