Sheikh Mansour oversees Man City transfer first with £65m gamble

Manchester City have been outspent by 16 Premier League teams and have nagging questions for the future but only a fool would write them off

How do you improve a squad that has won the Premier League, again?

Manchester City have routinely struggled to find the right players for the right money that can elevate Pep Guardiola's side, and this summer has been no different. Interest in Newcastle talisman Bruno Guimaraes wasn't strong enough to warrant going anywhere near a £100m release clause, and a look at strikers Orri Oskarsson and Kyogo Furuhashi was not enough to convince the Blues to part with any more cash.

It means they have spent just £35.6m in this window - the lowest total since 2006, two years before Sheikh Mansour bought the club - and nearly all of that money is on Brazilian winger Savinho, signed from fellow City Football Group club Troyes. Ilkay Gundogan returned on a free transfer from Barcelona after the 33-year-old got caught up in the wider financial difficulties of the Catalan club, while young striker Divin Mubama joins as one for the future in a move worth up to £2m.

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For an ownership who are obsessed with not losing momentum after success, on the surface such a quiet window is a major gamble. Sixteen Premier League clubs have spent more (so spare us the bores asking how anyone can compete with City for at least a few months) and the low spend at the Etihad has been accompanied by another monster summer of sales that have included the departures of first-team players Julian Alvarez and Sergio Gomez.

Two in for two out may not have weakened the squad but there is an argument with an expanded Champions League and Club World Cup this season that a bigger group was necessary to cope with the demands of the competitions. Arsenal have run the Blues close in the Premier League for the last two years and have spent £63m more than them: will it be third time lucky for the Gunners?

If it feels like it is asking a lot of Guardiola and the players to win again - and it needs to be stressed that it should be because winning four or five consecutive league titles should not be normalised - it says a lot for them that nobody is willing to write them off. It was a gamble to make Riyad Mahrez the only major signing in 2018, and not replace Vincent Kompany in 2019, and not to sign a left-back in 2020, and not to replace Sergio Aguero in 2021 and yet three of those four seasons ended with City lifting the Premier League title.

City will not feel they are weaker for having managed to keep hold of Ederson, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, and Kyle Walker in a window where all had clubs interested in them. Having been relaxed all summer about the prospect of adding cover for Rodri in midfield, the Gundogan opportunity was almost too good to be true.

Somehow, Gundogan is also an answer to the issue of replacing Julian Alvarez after his club record £81.5m move to Atletico. It was easier for City not to move for another striker as back-up to Erling Haaland knowing they were bringing back the man who thrived when they last played regularly without a centre-forward.

Rico Lewis has started this campaign like a player determined to have more minutes, while James McAtee has also been promoted to the first team squad; Nico O'Reilly and Jacob Wright (as well as Mubama) will also train regularly even if they play matches for the Under-21s.

How much youth comes more to the fore, including Savinho, Jeremy Doku, and Josko Gvardiol, will influence the feel of the squad as the season progresses. Even if keeping experienced winners is a plus, there is a danger that next summer requires major upheaval in the playing squad that could come at the same time as needing to bring in a Guardiola successor.

If the manager doesn't renew his deal, the next man will - barring the worst possible outcome with the Premier League charges - at least have significant funds to be able to build his own team just as Guardiola was heavily backed in 2016 and 2017. As City sit top of the table after the opening two matches though, there is every confidence at the club that this window has set them up for more success.