Manchester City’s mass-squad overhaul is already in full swing.
The Citizens have spent around £125m this January on four players with an average age of 20 years old; Pep Guardiola threw both Abdukodir Khusanov and Omar Marmoush in for their debuts against Chelsea last Saturday.
Meantime, Vitor Reis will be hoping to make his own debut against Arsenal on Sunday, while Juma Bah’s maiden outing in sky blue will have to wait, as he’ll spend the remainder of the campaign on loan at Lens.
Elsewhere, Kyle Walker has joined AC Milan on loan, and he could be the first of many Man City stalwarts set to depart over the coming months.
Manchester City youngster pushing to leave
As reported by Florian Plettenberg and Patrick Berge of Sky Sports Deutschland, Bayer Leverkusen are “trying to secure” Manchester City youngster James McAtee.
James Ducker of the Telegraph noted earlier in the window that fellow Bundesliga-outfit Borussia Dortmund were also attempting to sign the 22-year-old, although their interest appears to have cooled since Nuri Şahin’s sacking.
Guardiola has previously described McAtee as “special”, but the youngster has started just four times this season, all coming in cup competitions, seeing just 157 minutes of action in the Premier League and Champions League.
Jacek Kulig of Football Talent Scout described McAtee as a “top talent”, and the youngster has proved his worth throughout January, bagging a first-ever senior hat-trick against Salford in the FA Cup, before heading home his first-ever Premier League goal for Man City during the 6-0 demolition of Ipswich.
Sam Lee of the Athletic believes he is frustrated by his “limited opportunities”. However, as outlined earlier this week, this could prove to be a Cole Palmer-esque mistake, and there’s a much more high-profile member of the Man City squad they should squeeze out instead to make room for McAtee.
Manchester City's record signing continues to underwhelm
By rolling home a penalty against Salford, Jack Grealish ended his 392-day wait for a goal, before then lashing home the opener against Paris Saint Germain, albeit in vain, as the Citizens were beaten 4-2 at Parc des Princes.
Despite ending his draught, Man City’s club-record signing has still come in for widespread criticism.
Dev Bajwa described him as “ineffective”, James Westwood of Goal believes his ‘talents are wasted at Man City’, labelling him a ‘depreciating asset’, while Richard Jolly of the Independent notes that he is not the same player he once was at Aston Villa, blaming Guardiola for turning ‘one of the most exciting attacking players in world football into someone who is neither exciting nor attacking’.
Jolly adds that Grealish’s ‘lack of productivity has become more of an issue’, so let’s assess Grealish’s season-by-season statistics.
Statistics
2020/21
2021/22
2022/23
2023/24
2024/25
Appearances
27
39
50
36
22
Minutes
2,275
2,730
3,487
2,114
1,108
Goals
7
6
5
3
2
Assists
10
4
11
3
4
Goals – xG
+1.4
-2.3
+0.4
+0.9
-0.8
Progressive carries
172
153
143
87
66
Dribble success %
64.4%
58.8%
40.9%
43.9%
52%
Shot-creating actions
169
119
104
54
40
Pass completion %
78.9%
85.8%
81.4%
86%
87%
Touches per 90
57
55
57
62
64
The table makes for interesting reading, backing up the assertion that Grealish has never been the same player at Man City that he once was with Villa.
During his final season in the Midlands, Grealish racked up more goals, a higher goal – xG figure, more progressive carries and a higher take-on success percentage than he ever has during any of his four campaigns in Manchester.
On the flip side, two statistics are higher than ever this season. They are: pass completion % and toucher per 90.
This underlines that Grealish – who has been linked with an exit of late – while often heavily involved in play, is not offering much in the final third, so now might be time for the Citizens to move on their winger, currently earning £300k-per-week, to make space for McAtee.
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