Pep Guardiola turned down the option of strengthening Manchester City considerably last summer when it was offered and he is wondering whether this was an error.
City have won their past three games, after only one victory in the previous 13 matches. A major factor in the loss of form was the number of injuries.
Last season Guardiola guided City to a record fourth consecutive championship. This convinced him to reject the option from Ferran Soriano, the chief executive, and Txiki Begiristain, the sporting director, to make signings beyond Savinho, who cost £30.8m, and Ilkay Gündogan, whose free acquisition later in the window was a surprise.
Guardiola said: “In the summertime, the club thought about doing it, and I said: ‘No, I don’t want to make any signings. I rely on the team and I want to stay with them.’ Just Savinho came – and Gündo back [which] I wasn’t expecting, but he came back. And I said, because I rely a lot with these guys and I still thought I can do it again, do it again with those guys. But after the injuries – wow – maybe we should have done it, but you never know in that position.
“But I think the team is [still] really good and the squad is really good. I had that feeling. The central defence is exceptional, the full‑backs are exceptional, and all the players that we had. Otherwise, we cannot achieve what we achieved.”
In an attempt to rescue this season City have agreed a deal to sign the centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov from Lens for an initial €40m (£33.5m) and are keen to bring in Eintracht Frankfurt’s forward Omar Marmoush and the 19-year-old Palmeiras defender Vitor Reis.
Reis can play at right-back, where City could soon be weakened after Guardiola revealed Kyle Walker had asked to explore a move abroad. The manager is confident that should the 34-year-old depart, City have plenty of high-quality options in the position.
“Yeah [we do],” he said, adding with a self-deprecating tone: “I’m so clever. I’m such a talented manager who can find the right solution. Kyle is our player right now, so that’s all. So we have the option [to keep]. What’s going to happen, I don’t know.”
Rico Lewis, Manuel Akanji, John Stones and Matheus Nunes have played the position, and Nico O’Reilly operated as left-sided defender against Salford.
