2023 was shaping up to be a rather quiet year on the transfer front for Manchester City. By design.
In a departure from their usual tactic of gradual improvement, City had a big shake-up last summer as Pep Guardiola moved to revigorate his squad to prevent it from growing fat on success. Out went four crucial players to the club's recent success in Raheem Sterling, Fernandinho, Gabriel Jesus and Aleks Zinchenko, with the winds of change blowing in Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez, Kalvin Phillips, Manuel Akanji, Sergio Gomez and Stefan Ortega.
So much sudden disruption has led to growing pains this season but the Blues should hopefully emerge at the end of the transformation for the better. After so many movers and shakers in 2022, this year looked as though it would return to normal with a drastic reduction in moves in and out of the club.
