City's January spend is not enough to spark renaissance

Pep Guardiola has three new players by his side and a long four months ahead of him.

- RICHARD JOLLY

The new-look Manchester City is taking shape at pace, after a week in which some £122m was spent on Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis, and yet Guardiola believes the old City will not return this season.

“Next season we will be back,” he said. But not before. “Really, now it is a question to survive, to qualify [for the Champions League], to fight for the title if it is possible; otherwise to accept the reality is completely different from the last eight or nine years.”

The reality is so different that it is very plausible that City, 25th in the Champions League, will not even secure a play-off place. “In the beginning I would not think we could not qualify or be in the 24,” Guardiola said. He feared a slide, but the extent has surprised even him. “Three months ago, two months ago, I said this season we are going to suffer, I smell it and it has happened,” he explained.

The sense that it has gone worse than anticipated is reflected in City’s January business. Guardiola had envisaged signings at the end of the season. “It’s always better to do it in the summer,” said a manager who, since Aymeric Laporte’s arrival in 2018, had tended to sit out the winter window. Now he had to act. Those signings had to be accelerated because of injury problems.