Manchester City are experiencing their worst run of results in nine years under Pep Guardiola and their joint-worst losing streak in the Premier League since being taken over by the Abu Dhabi royal family. This is not a blip, this a full-blown crisis. And the only way to respond is to do what the club did on those two previous occasions: completely overhaul the squad.
City signed 11 players in their first summer under the Abu Dhabi owners in 2008, including Robinho, Vincent Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta, plus a further 10 the following year, adding Emanuel Adebayor, Gareth Barry and Carlos Tevez to an already richly-assembled squad. When Guardiola became coach in 2016, there was another massive influx of players, with Ilkay Gundogan and John Stones among those joining up in a spending spree totalling around £180 million ($228m). And when the coach failed to win a trophy for the first time in his career that season, the club shelled out £262m ($332m) on new arrivals, reshaping their entire defence.
City made just two signings last summer after winning a fourth consecutive Premier League title and they are now paying a heavy price for trusting in the old guard. The squad contains 11 players who are either on the wrong side of 30 already or who will be into their fourth decade when next season begins, and it has just taken a few injuries for City to fall apart. Sunday’s defeat at Anfield was their sixth defeat in their last seven games, leaving them 11 points behind the Reds in the title race.
The Cityzens desperately need to get back to winning ways when they host Nottingham Forest on Wednesday, but more importantly they need to look towards the future and begin rearming their squad so Guardiola can assemble another title-winning side. And that means moving on a number of players who inspired them during their era of dominance but who are long past their best.
GOAL picks out six names Guardiola must look to move on as he plots a major rebuild…