OF UPGRADES AND DOWNTURNS

In the summer of 2012, Manchester City, with Roberto Mancini still just about in tow, produced a summer spend of such prolonged ghastliness, it would eventually bring to a close the urbane Italian's reign at the Etihad. 

Business that summer produced Jack Rodwell, Scott Sinclair, Matija Nastasic, Javi Garcia and the ineffable, low-flying Maicon.

As improvements on the players that had months earlier pulled in City's first league title since 1968, there was little to be said. Not one of these acquisitions raised enough energy to ignite a candle and, as the season kicked off with a wobbly 3-2 home win over Southampton, talk was of how City were to progress in their inaugural Champions League tilt with this array of new talent at their disposal.

Rodwell featured against the opening day visitors in a midfield comprising Yaya Toure, Samir Nasri and David Silva, yet only managed to make it look weaker, as former talisman Nigel de Jong prepared to be shifted out to AC Milan. De Jong it had been carrying the ball forward the previous May in the 94th minute of that sweat drenched title denouement against Queens Park Rangers, when City won the league the only way the Gods would have allowed it. Now Rodwell carried it sideways.

City had to come from behind to beat Southampton, as they had done so dramatically against QPR, and again in the second home game of the season, a 3-1 win over the self same Londoners, the champions looked vulnerable in a shaky 3-1 win. The programme cover featured "Jack the Lad" Rodwell, but, despite the smiles and the shiny new kit,  all was clearly not well.

When it came, it would be City's worst-ever showing in the Champions League. Drawn with the champions of Spain, Germany and Holland, it was truly a Group of Death with City starting it semi-deceased and ending it comatose. The reality quickly proved to be worse than even the greatest of the ex-Kippax doom-mongers could have predicted. 

This correspondent watched aghast high in the stands as the opening game away to Real ended 3-2 after City had held a 2-1 lead going into the 87th minute, provoking a delirious knee slide along the touchline from the Armani-suited Jose Mourinho. Talk about scuffing the knees unnecessarily.

New signing from Benfica Javi Garcia featured in a ponderous looking midfield alongside Gareth Barry and Yaya Toure, yet another three minutes would have seen a famous win at the Bernabeu. It was not yet clear that City's season would fall flat. In Europe this gradually became the case, however, as Dortmund and Ajax both wiped the floor with an out-of-sorts Blues side, City finishing a distant last in their group of four.

Soon the League Cup would also be sacrificed in a home defeat to Aston Villa. It was by now dawning on many that the desired Summer upgrade was in fact an utter dud. A dreadfully listless 1-3 defeat at St Mary's where Barry's own goal sealed the win for Southampton as early as the 48th minute, meant City were languishing in the leaders' slipstream. They would cling on through the spring with some more invigorating performances to finish runners-up in the league to a rejuvenated United and would go all the way to the Cup Final, only to be sidelined by a player go-slow in the final versus Wigan Athletic, who won with a last minute Ben Watson header.

It had cost Mancini his job, although he had been on his way long before the cold May showers of Wembley. In fact, the writing had been on the wall as early as the pre-season, with the poor summer intake scuppering City's chances before a ball had even been kicked.

It is difficult to look at the 2023-24 iteration without being bombarded with technicolour flashbacks of Rodwell and company. Josco Gvardiol, a fish out of water at left back, Mateo Kovacic a willing runner but no replacement for the dearly departed Ilkay Gundogan. Matheus Nunes a tidy technician but hardly an upgrade on what went before. With Rico Lewis and Oscar Bobb clean out of the youth ranks stepping up in front of England international Kalvin Phillips, there looks to be no future at City for the ex-Leeds man either.

Everywhere you look, suddenly square pegs are sitting askew in round holes. The loss of John Stones and Kevin de Bruyne provides a chunk of the excuses, but not all. Loss of form across the board and possibly a hardly unimaginable loss of hunger too (to go with the fans getting tired of constant winning of course), has left the side looking as listless and rudderless as Mancini's 2013 side. The defeat at Villa did not need the statisticians to tell us City's possession game had been shot to bits and that Villa were picking up the ball from a multitude of misplaced passes that have seldom if ever been seen before on Pep Guardiola's watch. It all made for unusually grim viewing.

It is ten years since City got it so wrong in the transfer market and there have been very few bad summers on that front since, but it is indisputable that last summer's work in this area is already coming home to roost. With a trip to Saudi Arabia further clogging up the schedules and the need to perform adequately in the club's first-ever appearance at the World Club Cup, the winter transfer window suddenly looms large as a last ditch opportunity to sort out the squad before the 2023-24 season is sacrificed in the same manner as that of ten years ago.    

🔚