Manchester City may have spent an awful lot of money in the past years to acquire the best players in the world, but they have also made very transfer business where they gained as well. In the past decade, we have seen the Cityzens rise in the Premier League to win the league severally thanks to their strategic investments.
It took decisive moves to acquire the best of the best in every transfer business window. This transformed the squad, and in the hands of good coaches, they’ve won several trophies.
Since the rich Arab, Sheikh Mansour took over Etihad’s management, they have spent over £1.5billion to get the players that have won them 5 Premier League titles within ten years.
Not only have City developed the hunger to get the best players in the world for huge sums, but they have developed a keen sense of handling their transfer business which has earned them over £750 million in the last ten years. This could be due to the influence of the current club owner, who has completely transformed City to be a very profitable business entity.
Under the Director, Txiki Begiristain, City have made profits from selling players who they consider unnecessary to their squad. So far, it has been working for them as far as the modern transfer business is concerned.
In this article, you would discover how Manchester City profit in their transfer business despite being regarded as a heavy spender.
Shaun Wright-Phillips
It wasn’t entirely pleasant for the six-time league champions to let go of Wright-Philips in 2005 to The Blues who were willing to acquire him for £21million. Of course, in 2005, The Sky Blues were not as renowned for their ability to win trophies as they are now, finishing eighth in the league while the Blues had just won the league, hence the reluctant Wright-Philips moved to Chelsea.
Four years later, he returned to join the Citizens team that won the FA Cup in 2011 for just £9 million. City made about £ 11 million in total from Shaun.
Jadon Sancho
The Sky Blues acquire the Watford winger for about half a million euros and then sold him without even playing a debut match.
The impatient lad was of course talented as he rose through ranks in the club’s academy just as Foden. He was just keen to join the first team.
He stopped training and then Dortmund bought him for £10 million and as expected, he was successful in the German League.
He returned to the EPL after the Red Devils bought him for £73million, a deal in which City received a further 15 percent in sell-on fees that earned them an extra £11.2m ($13.5m).
All in all, City made about £22.2 million.
Alvaro Negredo
The Spaniard’s time at the Etihad left a lot of people with a lot of questions. He only played for the Sky Blues for a season and a half which was incredible while the other was not as the first.
Having scored about 23 goals in the first 33 appearances it was a shock that over the next few months, he didn’t record any goals. He was eventually sold to Valencia for £23.7million in 2014.
Kelechi Iheanacho
Kelechi had just won the Golden Ball for the best player at the Under-17 World Cup with Nigeria when City acquired him.
He was the youngest player to score a hattrick for City in six decades when he gave a glorious show against Aston Villa to win the FA Cup.
Despite this record and his prolific goal-scoring ability, he wasn’t a regular, and hence in 2017, he moved to Leicester City in a £25million deal.
Danilo
The Brazilian defender joined City from Madrid when Pep was in a dire need to change his full backs. He was bought for £26.5million.
In 2019, Danilo left City in a swap deal for Joao Cancelo who was worth £60million at the moment. Danilo was sold for £33million to Juventus.
City made about £6.5million from that deal.
Oleksandr Zinchenko
The Ukrainian midfielder was bought from the Russian side F.C UFA for about £1.7million after which he switched to take on the left back’s role when the team needed someone to fill in that position.
He was sold for £35million to Arterta’s side.
All in all, City made a whooping £33.3 million from that deal. What a deal!
Gabriel Jesus
Gabriel was just 19 years old when City bought him for £27million from Palmeiras in 2016.
He scored 96 goals in 236 appearances for the Sky Blues and he is a remarkable forward. In his first 11 appearances, he scored 8 goals. But he couldn’t really step up to fill in the shoes of the Argentinian legend —Sergio Aguero.
His arrival pushed club legend, Sergio Aguero, to greater heights but when the Argentinian left, Jesus didn’t quite have the quality to fill his shoes.
City sold him to Arsenal for £45million which means that City made £18 million in profit.
Ferran Torres
Torres was bought for just £21m from Valencia. His talent is undisputable but wasn’t able to secure a sport in the first eleven under Guardiola’s management. City received more than twice what they had paid for him 18 months earlier when he was sold to Barcelona for £47 million. City made about £21m in profit.
Raheem Sterling
City bought the 21-year-old English player from Liverpool for a whooping sum of £49million. With 131 goals in 339 appearances and four league titles, he was a very fruitful investment. After seven years, City eventually sold him to Chelsea for about £47.5 million after a successful time at the Etihad.
Leroy Sane
The German International was bought form Schalke for £45million and was sold back to the German Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich. City made about £10million from that transfer business.
