I don’t think we praise Pep Guardiola enough.
Bernardo Silva came from Monaco (the same place a certain Bakayoko came to Chelsea from).
Ederson and Ruben Dias came from the Portuguese League (not even a top 5 European league).
Manuel Akanji arrived without any fanfare from Borussia Dortmund.
Ilkay Gundogan came on a free transfer from Borussia Dortmund.
Rodri was a benchwarmer at Atletico Madrid.
Gabriel Jesus came from the Brazilian league.
Leroy Sane arrived as an unproven kid from Schalke 04.
John Stones wasn’t even among the top 30 best defenders in England when he came from Everton in 2016.
Nathan Ake came from relegated Bournemouth, three years after being rejected by Chelsea.
These are 10 players who have been instrumental to City’s success, and none of them were considered “big buys” at the time.
They were just “normal” everyday EPL signings.
NONE OF THEM WERE WORLD-CLASS PLAYERS WHEN THEY WERE SIGNED.
None of them. Okay, maybe Gundogan. But the rest were not world-class players.
Had they signed for any other team, nobody would have cared.
Yes, some of them came with big transfer fees, but that’s due to the nature of the modern-day transfer market. You can check how much Manchester United paid for Antony, Liverpool for Nunez, or Chelsea for Lukaku to understand what I mean.
These players are arguably on the same level as the following 10 players from Liverpool at the time of their signings:
- Fabinho
- Alisson
- Virgil Van Dijk
- Naby Keita
- Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
- Darwin Nunez
- Andy Robertson
- Gini Wijnaldum
- Mo Salah
- Sadio Mane
These players are arguably on the same level as the following 10 Manchester United players at the time of their signings:
- Harry Maguire
- Victor Lindelof
- Paul Pogba
- Zlatan Ibrahimovic
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- Jadon Sancho
- Raphael Varane
- Fred
- Alexis Sanchez
- Antony
These players are arguably on the same level as the following 10 Chelsea players at the time of their signings:
- Tiemoue Bakayoko
- Hakim Ziyech
- Jorginho
- Alvaro Morata
- Kai Havertz
- Timo Werner
- Raheem Sterling
- Antonio Rudiger
- Thiago Silva
- Moises Caicedo
These players are arguably on the same level as the following 10 Arsenal players at the time of their signings:
- Kai Havertz
- Gabriel Jesus
- Oleksandr Zinchenko
- Nicolas Pepe
- Gabriel Martinelli
- William Saliba
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
- Alexandre Lacazette
- Lucas Torreira
- Ben White
These are 10 players I randomly selected from these teams who were signed after Pep came to City.
Now, look at the ten players each team signed, and then tell me with a straight face that, at the time of signing, the City players were head and shoulders better than those signed by the other teams.
I leave it to you and your conscience to be the judge.
No matter what you and your conscience agree on, we are underrating the level of player development going on at Manchester City.
How average and above-average players are signed by this club and turned into world-class players deserves applause.
I say this because, while other teams can list players who came in and flopped massively, you can’t count more than five players who Guardiola signed that flopped massively.
From the academy, to the scouts, to the physios/medical team, to the sporting directors, to the management, they are doing something right at that club called Manchester City.
Every team that wants to be successful in today’s football needs to study the Manchester City blueprint.
