Manchester City have undergone heavy transition, from manager Pep Guardiola being replaced after 10 years by Enzo Maresca, to the departure of key figures in their glory years such as Rodri, Bernardo Silva, John Stones and Jack Grealish, as well as Savio, Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzales, James Trafford, Nathan Ake and Tijjani Reijnders.
The burning ambition remains, however, as proved by the manner in which they have attacked the market to replenish their squad for a title tilt.
City paid £125m – equalling the British transfer record – to reunite former Chelsea manager Maresca with Enzo Fernandez, having already paid £116m to sign England midfielder Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest.
And further quality arrived in the shape of Iliman Ndiaye from Everton for £65m, the brilliant Morocco 18-year-old Ayyoub Bouaddi, who cost £85.6m from Lille, as well as Allan Elias from Palmeiras in Brazil.
It amounts to quite the rebuild, with the Fernandez deal taking City’s spending to a Premier League record £458m for a single transfer window, surpassing Liverpool’s £415m from last summer.
However, City have also achieved around £300m worth of player sales this summer, illustrating the vast turnover at the start of the post-Guardiola era.
An eventful window but one that leaves City, who still have so much class elsewhere, in good shape to mount a serious challenge.
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