Since their rise to prominence, Manchester City has spent summers spending like trust fund babies. This transfer window has been no different. The big change this window is where they are spending that money. Having seen the two teams ahead of them in the table last season, Spurs and Chelsea, build their clubs around defense, City is trying to do the same. However, in doing so the Citizens have destroyed the pay scale for defenders. Their layouts have skewed the market to a point that the rest of the Premier League will now have to follow suit going forward.
Oddly enough, Manchester City’s outlandish cash splash didn’t even start with defenders. Bernardo Silva came from Monaco on a £43m transfer. For a creative midfielder in his prime, nobody blinked an eye on that one. The next outlay is what started raising eyebrows.
Ederson Moraes’ £34.7m transfer made him the most expensive goalkeeper of all-time. It broke the 16-year-old record of £32.6m which was the astronomical sum Juventus paid to snare Gianluigi Buffon from Parma. Manchester City nearly doubled the English record for a keeper fee as well as David de Gea cost just £18.3m in 2011. City was making it clear that their third place finish last year was unacceptable. For all of Pep Guardiola’s genius, the club is poised to spend their way up the standings again. But breaking a record for a goalkeeper is one thing. Nobody saw what they’d pull off over the next month and change.
Kyle Walker was the odd man out at Spurs. Kieran Trippier is now Mauricio Pochettino’s first choice right back. Many youth products will make their full senior debuts in 2017-18. The England international needed a new home. He was courted by the likes of Bayern Munich, Chelsea, and Arsenal. He had a fairly steep price tag on him in the £43m-£45m depending on your preferred publication. So when Manchester City upped the ante to £53m the other suitors backed away gleefully. A man who had lost his place on a stellar defense had become the world’s most expensive defender and Englishman at that.
In past years, center backs were always the most expensive piece of your back line. Alas, the copycat nature of the sport has turned those tables. Wing backs, as well as traditional full backs, are in vogue now more than ever and teams looking to piggyback off the success of clubs with tremendous left and right backs able to burst up and down the touch line. City is riding that trend hard this summer.
While Walker’s fee caused a curfuffle, it was just the beginning. Recently Manchester City has outdone themselves. Danilo joins City from Real Madrid for £26.3m. The 26-year-old Brazilian had talent but could never break past Dani Carvajal in the right back hierarchy at the Santiago Bernabeu. Still, Real Madrid was able to make a profit on a second choice squad rotation player because of City’s spending. The funny thing is he’ll be in the exact same position at City with Walker keeping him a rotational player at best.
But this week will be the main event. Benjamin Mendy is set to be the latest player to depart Monaco’s Cinderella squad of a year ago. Manchester City will break the record they set less than a month ago to get him. Of the three incoming full backs, Mendy makes the most sense. But City’s purchases prior have made him the most expensive defender of all-time because Monaco saw what they spent on Kyle Walker and demanded at least that. In typical City fashion, they went above and beyond, outbidding themselves in a marketplace they created.
With nearly £220m spent after Mendy puts pen to paper, City’s defense is still not sorted. They are in deep trouble if the oft-injured Vincent Kompany continues to find himself in the physio room more than on the pitch. John Stones, the deposed former most expensive defender, is still trying to find himself in sky blue. City needs to get another center back in before the season’s start. But have they created a market that will make getting a good one impossible? I think so.
Spending in the Premier League has gone haywire since the TV money ballooned. But this summer has made it even worse. Manchester City has single-handedly destroyed the price structure for defenders. Their desire to compete, while noble, has made it more difficult for both themselves and their opponents to solidify their resources at the back. The damage is done and I for one am intrigued to see how far up the pricing goes.