At the end of the 2013/14 season during my time as Manchester United manager, possibly the greatest transfer sequence in my entire Football Manager career occurred. Manchester City finished 8th in the table, dismally failing both domestically and in Europe. As a result of their lack of success a number of key players became disillusioned (Unhappy) at the club, and began to request transfers. Thus started a domino effect whereby loss of key players saw a drop in form, which saw more players become disillusioned and request transfers, which led to a further drop in form, and so on. This saw their squad decimated and replaced somewhat comically by far inferior players, as well as having a season that could be best described as “Manchester City pre 2008”; 9th in the league mid-way through the season, no European football and non-remarkable progression in cup competitions. As a passionate Manchester United fan nothing satisfied me more than seeing our Manchester rivals self-destruct so spectacularly. The entire sequence is documented in the screenshot of their seasons transfer history that I'm including with this post, but I will also include a short summary of the key moments during their self-destruction.
After finishing 8th in the League, and with players disillusioned over life at Manchester City, it looked like it was going to be a bleak a transfer window for the club. At the end of the season a number of players reached the end of their contracts and were released. The most notable among these were Barry, Maicon and Lescott, who moved to Fulham, Atletico Madrid and Liverpool respectively. Although these weren't key players in City’s squad they were still players who refused to renew their contracts, and left City’s squad weaker and with less depth than before. Once the transfer window opened the problems only got worse City, the first key player to go was Kompany, who was snatched up by PSG for a comparative bargain at £17.75M. Not long after Silva was bought by (newly rich) Inter Milan for again, £17.75M, a steal for a player of Silva’s quality, and Toure went to PSG (who were cashing in on City’s troubles) for £22M. The loss of these players saw more City players become disillusioned, and barely a month later Fellaini, Kaboul (who joined for £20M the previous season) and Aguero, left for Chelsea (£28.5M), PSG (19.75M) and Barcelona (29.5M) respectively. Acceptable prices for the first two, but a steal for Aguero, all of these transfers especially damaging considering the only signing they made in the summer was Anita from Newcastle (£20M!), with Milner going the other way (£2.9M), leaving the squad bare and desperately short on quality. The total they earned from their enforced summer sales was a respectable £144M.
However the real comedy comes from who they spent this money on in January. They kick-started the window with the purchase of Rondon from Rubin for £45.5M! The acquisitions of Viergever, Bonaventura and Podolski for ~ £25M, but the jewel on the ground was buying Torres from Chelsea from for (an admittedly low price) of £3.8M! Thus completed City’s “Transfer Troubles”, up until the next window, where I am waiting in anticipation for City to put in a £50M bid for Heskey, as well as the continued deterioration of their season. Just thought I’d share this period with you, which gave me repeated chuckles during season.
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After finishing 8th in the League, and with players disillusioned over life at Manchester City, it looked like it was going to be a bleak a transfer window for the club. At the end of the season a number of players reached the end of their contracts and were released. The most notable among these were Barry, Maicon and Lescott, who moved to Fulham, Atletico Madrid and Liverpool respectively. Although these weren't key players in City’s squad they were still players who refused to renew their contracts, and left City’s squad weaker and with less depth than before. Once the transfer window opened the problems only got worse City, the first key player to go was Kompany, who was snatched up by PSG for a comparative bargain at £17.75M. Not long after Silva was bought by (newly rich) Inter Milan for again, £17.75M, a steal for a player of Silva’s quality, and Toure went to PSG (who were cashing in on City’s troubles) for £22M. The loss of these players saw more City players become disillusioned, and barely a month later Fellaini, Kaboul (who joined for £20M the previous season) and Aguero, left for Chelsea (£28.5M), PSG (19.75M) and Barcelona (29.5M) respectively. Acceptable prices for the first two, but a steal for Aguero, all of these transfers especially damaging considering the only signing they made in the summer was Anita from Newcastle (£20M!), with Milner going the other way (£2.9M), leaving the squad bare and desperately short on quality. The total they earned from their enforced summer sales was a respectable £144M.
However the real comedy comes from who they spent this money on in January. They kick-started the window with the purchase of Rondon from Rubin for £45.5M! The acquisitions of Viergever, Bonaventura and Podolski for ~ £25M, but the jewel on the ground was buying Torres from Chelsea from for (an admittedly low price) of £3.8M! Thus completed City’s “Transfer Troubles”, up until the next window, where I am waiting in anticipation for City to put in a £50M bid for Heskey, as well as the continued deterioration of their season. Just thought I’d share this period with you, which gave me repeated chuckles during season.
