No other club in the Premier League spends as much on salary expenses as Manchester City. Guardiola has got the best players he has pointed to, in signing battles with the biggest clubs in the football circus, City have built up a salary hierarchy like no other English club. After a season without titles (before the Club World Cup) and the Champions League exit before the fun started, it’s time for a clean-up at the Etihad.
In the winter transfer window, City spent £200 million on Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis and Nico Gonzalez. The season seems to be narrowly saved by a Champions League ticket. Heading into a transfer window, it has been announced that City will pull up £180 million on two players, this only during the first part of the transfer window. Then it becomes very tight in the salary budget of the club.
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According to football finance expert Stefan Borson, City are likely to be pressured to sell a handful of players this summer to clear space.
-I think that the budgets will be self-imposed and also limited by the size of the squad now, in terms of players they do not necessarily want in the future. Kevin De Bruyne will obviously leave the club, and that will free up a big chunk of the salary budget,” Borson told Football-Insider.
“But there are a number of players in that type of group, like Bernardo Silva, Gundogan, possibly one of Ake or Stones, players who haven’t played much this season because of injury, but who are approaching their 30s or are 30. So is Grealish. These players earn a lot of money that they will want to move, the expert continues.
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“But they will not be able to do it at a profit. They need to take a “haircut”. So the challenge really becomes how many of those types of players can they remove from the squad? Because I think they will build up the squad bigger for the demands of the season, but there is a limit, and there is a limit to the salary expenses. They already have a salary expense of over £400 million, the financial expert concludes.
