The noisy neighbours are getting louder by the day this summer as they have broken the record for the biggest spending spree in a transfer window. Real Madrid held the record since 2009, when they bought Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Kaka and Xabi Alonso, cementing their Galacticos status. Now that City have eclipsed that splurge by snapping up five players, how worried should Man Utd fans be going into the new season?
Very worried, according to the bookmakers. City have been made clear favourites to win the title next season, at odds of 9/5, while Man Utd are all the way out at 7/2 with Chelsea. But when you analyse City’s signings, it should not exactly leave Utd fans quaking in their boots. For their investment back in 2009, Real got two Balon d’Or winners that had recently played a starring role in their clubs lifting the Champions League, another Champions League winning midfielder and the best young striker in the world. That is the sort of spree to cause consternation among rivals. For their investment in 2017, City have purchased an unproven goalkeeper, three full-backs and a winger that may not even make their starting 11.
Goalkeeper was a problem position for City last season as Claudio Bravo proved a bit of a disaster after replacing Joe Hart. Pep Guardiola has tried to address that, but £35 million signing Ederson, now the world’s most expensive goalkeeper, may not be any better. He has never been capped for his country and has only one full season at Benfica under his belt. He is far from the finished article and cannot hold a torch to David De Gea. Full-back was another area in which Man City struggled last season, and Guardiola has been ruthless in getting rid of all four of them and spending £133 million on three replacements (so far). City will certainly have more energy in wide areas next season. But fullbacks do not win titles and they do not win you the Champions League. The Ronaldos, the Kakas and the Benzemas win you the Champions League. Had City gone out and bought Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, Koke and Paulo Dybala it would be another matter. It shows how hyper-inflated the market has become in that City broke Real’s record not on superstars but on full-backs, a goalkeeper and an attacking midfielder. None of them have ever got near winning the Balon d’Or and none of them have much silverware to their names.
It is hard to see how those signings will propel City above Chelsea and Spurs. If this is the limit of their ambitions this summer, it is good news for Utd. City have a great attack, but a weak defence, and they have not signed a centre-back so they will still concede plenty of goals. Now is the time for Utd to ramp up their spending, and invest in a far shrewder fashion. The market has clearly gone crazy, as you can see by Kyle Walker being worth more than £45 million and Gylfi Sigurdsson even more than that. Utd will have to spend serious money to improve their starting 11, but they have the ambition and the appetite. Nobody has broken the record they set when they made Paul Pogba the world’s most expensive footballer last summer, and they have already spent £75 million on Romelu Lakaku and a hefty sum on Victor Lindelof.
But that cannot be it. Utd have even more need to improve than City if they are to catch Chelsea, as Utd were sixth last season and well off the pace. The team drew far too many games as they were solid and hard to break down but lacked match winners and that spark to unlock tight games. To improve they need to sign creative geniuses, game changers. Utd should go for Neymar, paying the £200 million or so required to activate his release clause. If Sigurdsson is worth £50 million, then Neymar is worth four times that. He would be a better signing than Ederson, Silva, Mendy, Walker and Danilo put together. Big name players like Marco Verratti, Mbappe and Dybala should be the type of players Man Utd go for. They already have full-backs, for the big bucks you need game changers that can decide a game with a piece of individual brilliance.
The club seems ambitious and that 7/2 actually looks a good bet right now. Check out a review of a bookmaker like BetDSI, which has attractive odds, and you could make a great profit. City are still weak defensively, as are Liverpool and Arsenal. Tottenham will have to adapt to playing at a new stadium and they are not improving in the transfer market. Chelsea look very strong and it could be them setting the pace once more in the league, but with a couple more signings it would be Man Utd and not Man City that can overhaul them.
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