It was officially announced on Monday that one of Manchester City’s key attackers on their road to winning a fifth straight Premier League title last season had left the club and was off to seek new pastures this summer. Versatile forward Julián Álvarez departed the Sky Blues. Just two years after making the move to England from River Plate, he signed for Diego Simeone’s Atlético Madrid in a deal worth an initial €75 million but that could reach €95m with add-ons. Álvarez became Man City’s record sale by some margin – eclipsing the €56.2m Chelsea paid for Raheem Sterling in 2022 – while also earning the club a healthy profit on a player they signed for just €21.4m in January 2022. Should the add-ons be met in the future and Atlético end up paying the full €95m for Álvarez’s signature, it will make the player the eighth biggest sale in English football history.
So far during this summer transfer window, the only significant incoming at Man City was their €25m acquisition of Brazilian Savinho from sister club Troyes. However, they have recouped €116m from five player sales, with of course the Álvarez deal contributing the lion’s share of that figure. Despite 115 charges hanging over the club, with news this Tuesday suggesting the hearing for those charges is to be brought forward to September, since the summer 2022 transfer window, Man City only have a net spend of -€35.63m. For context Chelsea’s is -€836.99m in that period. It’s likely Pep Guardiola’s team will go back into the market to try and replace the departed Argentine attacker before the deadline on August 30. So who could that player be? We have picked out five potential targets Man City could go for.