Earlier this year, following two more transfer windows of mass-spending by Manchester City, Pep Guardiola became the manager in football history to have spent the most on transfer fees, surpassing the £2bn mark.
Of course, considering he has won 18 major honours since arriving at the Etihad nine years ago, he does get results.
However, many of the players who arrive in Manchester for a huge fee with massive expectations do not live up to them, one in particular springs to mind, so is a repeat scenario in danger of happening for a current sky blue star?
Kalvin Phillips’ Manchester City career
When Kalvin Phillips joined Manchester City from Leeds United for £45m in the summer of 2022, he was at the top of his game.
He’d racked up 234 appearances for boyhood club Leeds United, flourishing under Marcelo Bielsa, thereby becoming first-choice for England, starting all seven matches as the Three Lions reached the final of Euro 2020.
However, Phillips has, to date, made just 32 times in over three years for the Citizens, of which only six are starts, accumulating a miserly 921 minutes, the same time it takes to drive from the Etihad to the Eiffel Tower.
After spectacularly unmemorable loan spells at West Ham and Ipswich, the forgotten man returned to Manchester this summer.
He made his first appearance for the Citizens in 690 days when coming off the bench for a six minute cameo at Huddersfield in the EFL Cup but, having not even been named among the substitutes for any other fixture, fair to surmise that he isn’t back in Guardiola’s plans.
So, could a player in the same position, both literally and metaphorically perhaps, fall into the same trap?
Manchester City’s next forgotten midfielder
As the table below documents, Manchester City have signed 17 players for £45m or more since appointing Guardiola, yielding mixed success.
Man City £45m+ signings (2016-present)
Players
Fee
Man City apps
Tijjani Reijnders
£46.5m
13
Nico González
£50m
26
Omar Marmoush
£59m
28
Jérémy Doku
£55.5m
93
Matheus Nunes
£53m
79
Joško Gvardiol
£77.5m
103
Erling Braut Håland
£51m
155
Kalvin Phillips
£45m
32
Jack Grealish
£100m
157
Rúben Dias
£62.1m
231
Rodri
£62.8m
272
João Cancelo
£60m
154
Riyāḍ Maḥrez
£60m
236
Kyle Walker
£45m
319
Benjamin Mendy
£49.3m
75
Aymeric Laporte
£57m
180
John Stones
£47.5m
283
All information via Transfermarkt
Aside from the new recruits, Phillips has made, by some distance, the fewest appearances for the club of any of the expensive signings, but it could be concerning times ahead for one of those listed.
As part of Manchester City’s January spending spree, which saw them pay more than all other 19 Premier League clubs combined, they recruited Nico González from Porto on deadline day for £50m.
A la Masia Barcelona graduate, the 23-year-old arrived with impressive pedigree, viewed as a shrewd addition, with Guardiola labelling him a ‘mini-Rodri’; considering the Ballon d’Or winner was sidelined at the time, he appeared to be a sensible deputy.
However, it hasn’t really panned out that way for Nico, starting only nine Premier League matches last season, despite Rodri’s absence, handed just 16 starts across all competitions, coming off the bench a further ten times, but not used at all on nine occasions.
When Rodri hobbled off at Brentford on Sunday, Nico was the player introduced into midfield, but Guardiola has favoured Tijjani Reijnders since his arrival in June, while Mateo Kovačić’s return following surgery could limit the Spaniard’s opportunities further.
His only league goal for the club, to date, came against Bournemouth in May, rounding off a free-flowing team move.
However, more recently, Nico was in the headlines for conceding a penalty at Stade Louis II, kicking Eric Dier in the face, thereby allowing Monaco to pinch a point in stoppage time.
Speaking on Match of the Day in February, former Man City defender Micah Richards praised Nico’s “intelligence”, adding that “having someone with that kind of football IQ in your team is priceless”.
It is clear that the 23-year-old is a high-quality midfield player, but the same would have been said about Phillips, before he was simply not trusted by Guardiola and lost in the shuffle, with fears the same could happen to the Spaniard.
With Rodri, potentially, sidelined, it’ll be interesting to see if Nico is the man deployed at the base of midfield for Man City’s next fixture, which is Everton at home, after the international break.