Man City transfer news: Citizens set for fresh overhaul as three big-money signings fall out of favour

Tijjani Reijnders, James Trafford and Omar Marmoush arrived at Manchester City as important pieces, but little more than a year later the trio are already out of the plans

The rebuild at Manchester City was supposed to prepare the club for life after Pep Guardiola. Instead, some of the signings meant to underpin the next phase of the project have quickly turned into a problem to be solved.

In the market, Tijjani Reijnders is on his way to Al Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia, while James Trafford has already been sold to Leeds and Omar Marmoush is also not considered untouchable, leaving an awkward situation for a club that spent heavily specifically to refresh its squad.

Reijnders: the right player for the wrong problem

The Reijnders case is particularly symbolic. The Dutchman arrived from Milan in the summer of 2025 for around £46.5 million, after a season in which he had been named Serie A's best player. It looked like a perfectly logical signing for a midfield that was losing Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan.

According to analysis published by The Athletic, Enzo Maresca acknowledged that Reijnders' situation had become similar to that of Trafford and Marmoush: when club, manager and player all conclude that a parting of ways is the best solution, there is little point in persisting.

The choice of the Italian represents continuity on certain principles, but also opens the door to a deep review of the squad. The new manager signed a three-year contract and arrives to take charge of a team that had already begun reshaping itself even before Guardiola's departure.

On paper, the Reijnders signing made sense. Manchester City were coming off an extremely underwhelming 2024-25 campaign, with just 11 wins in 35 matches between October and March, and needed energy in midfield.

De Bruyne's exit made it even more urgent to find players capable of carrying the ball, creating individual advantages and producing output from midfield areas.

The problem lay precisely in what happened when he did not have the ball, and Reijnders was never a defensive specialist. Guardiola recognised his ability to attack the box and tried to make use of it.

The idea was to push him closer to Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush, almost replicating Gundogan's old late-arriving-in-the-box role. Guardiola himself explained that Reijnders could operate as a holding midfielder, but liked to get into the box to support the forwards.

The paradox became very clear. When Reijnders had the freedom to play, he produced results. Between December and early January, he scored four goals in seven Premier League matches.

After that, however, he lost his place. In other words, Manchester City discovered they could not get the best out of him with the structure they had.

The same problem appears elsewhere at Manchester City

Trafford is another example of how a signing can look correct on paper and still not work out within the squad.

The goalkeeper was developed at Manchester City himself and stood out at Burnley, even earning England recognition. The club decided to bring him back in 2025 for around £31 million, after selling Stefan Ortega and reorganising the position.

Little more than a year later, Trafford has already been sold to Leeds.

Marmoush represents a different, but equally revealing, case. The Egyptian arrived in January 2025 after an outstanding run at Eintracht Frankfurt, in a transfer worth around £60 million.

It was a signing that addressed a clear need: increasing individual quality in attack and offering an alternative in terms of carrying the ball, pace and finishing.

Haaland is the focal point of the attack and, when available, occupies almost every minute as the reference striker. Marmoush can play out wide, but does not necessarily offer the same balance as a specialist winger.

When he plays through the middle, he finds himself crowded out. When he sits on the bench, he loses rhythm.

The issue, then, is not that all these signings were absurd. It is that Manchester City paid significant sums for players with interesting characteristics, but not necessarily clearly defined roles within the team.

Since January 2025, Manchester City have invested hundreds of millions of pounds in a rebuild that brought in names such as Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis, Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Rayan Cherki, Trafford, Donnarumma, as well as Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi.

According to figures compiled by Sky Sports, the club had reached £445 million spent on 15 players in the 12 months prior to January 2026. There are, evidently, signings that look far more promising.

Khusanov and Cherki are viewed internally as players with major potential. Donnarumma adds qualities the position had been lacking, even if he also has limitations.

Guehi arrived to solve a defensive emergency and was signed for just £20 million, a fee considered extremely good value given his level and contractual situation.

Semenyo, for his part, had an immediate impact: he scored the goal that decided the FA Cup final against Chelsea and helped Manchester City complete a domestic double in 2025-26. But a rebuild cannot be judged solely on the number of good players signed.

Maresca's arrival changes everything and raises the stakes

The switch from Guardiola to Maresca makes a fresh assessment inevitable. The club itself acknowledges that it is entering a new era after a decade under the Spaniard. But it needs to avoid the transition turning into a constant string of corrections.

The signing of Elliot Anderson for £116 million, for example, shows the club remains willing to invest heavily when it identifies a need. The Englishman was considered a priority for midfield and signed a five-year contract, with the option of a further year. That raises the stakes for the coming weeks.

If Reijnders leaves, Marmoush potentially leaves too, Trafford has already gone and other players still need to determine their futures, Manchester City will have to rebuild a significant part of the squad again, just a year after starting the first major overhaul.

Reijnders did not fail simply because he was not good enough, Trafford has not stopped being a promising goalkeeper, and Marmoush has not forgotten how to play football.

What has failed, at least so far, is the attempt to turn a collection of talented players into a squad capable of meeting Manchester City's specific demands.

After a decade in which Guardiola made the team look bigger than the sum of its parts, Manchester City are discovering that signing good players is not enough. It is essential to know exactly why each of them is there.