Why Manchester City’s £125million spending spree is just the beginning after PSG humbling exposed what they still desperately need

Manchester City’s dejected squad will have just been beginning to meander towards their recovery session when the third new arrival of a busy January window was announced, grinning with the No 7 shirt.

Costing an initial £59million, which is likely to rise to £63m with bonuses, 25-year-old Omar Marmoush is the sort of signing who can ignite a season. He talked about his dreams coming true, about how Pep Guardiola can utilise him anywhere across the front three or in behind someone in Erling Haaland whom he labelled ‘a machine’.

Marmoush’s campaign so far with Eintracht Frankfurt, 15 goals in the Bundesliga (only Harry Kane, with 16, has more), is evidence that the Egyptian should offer City more threat in the final third.

But it is his eagerness to run and scamper that ought to provide that extra bit of help to an ailing, aging team who capitulated in Paris 11 hours prior to the club’s confirmation of their attacking cavalry.

It takes City’s spending in January to around £125m, with young defenders Abdukodir Khusanov – the first Uzbek to sign for a Premier League club – and Vitor Reis in the building earlier in the week.

The injury situation – Ruben Dias again suffering a problem ahead of Chelsea on Saturday, Nathan Ake sidelined once more – and loan departure of Kyle Walker to AC Milan meant bodies were required.

They’ve gone for potential over the finished articles defensively, with Khusanov’s rapid pace seen as an asset to foil counter attacks and operate with inverted full backs with added security.

Reis, a £29.6m arrival from the burgeoning talent factory at Palmeiras, has featured as a left back as well and it can give some flexibility, although the 19-year-old is seen as behind Khusanov in the pecking order.

Khusanov has 18 caps for his country and while he began his career in Belarus, he spent the last 18 months in the French top flight with Lens, where he gained Champions League experience – though part of that was being thumped 6-0 at Arsenal on his debut in the competition.

This has been swift action to arrest a slump that leaves City with a game against Club Bruges in the Champions League on Wednesday that the 2023 European champions must win to avoid a humiliating group-stage exit. But they will be acutely aware that ideally, the spending should not stop there.

Sources outside the club were suggesting in the build-up to the window that City had in the region of £200m available to spend to climb out of their downward spiral in form and if that remains the case, a central midfielder is an absolute necessity.

Chief executive Ferran Soriano and the outgoing sporting director Txiki Begiristain like value for money but it may be that they need to overspend to fix an area of the pitch that was painfully abject at the Parc des Princes. After a six-game unbeaten run, the old wounds were ruptured again and defeat made it 10 losses in the last 19 games.

City looked old and weary as Paris Saint-Germain ran roughshod through them, with neither Mateo Kovacic nor Bernardo Silva able to keep up with the frantic pace of an absorbing game that lay everything on the line for the hosts.

PSG were more agile and possessed an additional body in that key battleground. City couldn’t keep the ball or keep up with Joao Neves and Co.

It’s why Marmoush – with the tenacity of his pressing – should be complemented with a midfielder if City are to return to their usual tigerish best off the ball. Too often this season has the first line of the press, with Haaland joined by a team-mate, been rendered a pointless exercise as the midfield were languishing way behind play. 

Opponents can comfortably play through City inside their own halves. It then puts undue pressure on a nervous back line and so on, leading to the sort of demise we saw in the French capital.

More legs are required and some impetus too. Ballon d’Or winner Rodri sat in the stands in Paris, grimly staring into the distance once the fourth went in and with PSG celebrating wildly in one corner.

His predecessor Fernandinho, over in Europe during Brazil’s off-season, put on a brave face while smiling for pictures with fans on the concourse afterwards. 

How Guardiola must wish he could call upon either of those two, to not only offer defensive steel but set the team’s tempo.

‘It’s down to us to get the swagger back,’ said Jack Grealish, who had put City in front just after half-time with his first Champions League goal for three and a half years.

‘We have new signings coming in and hopefully we can get our confidence back.’

Douglas Luiz has been offered for a return to the club after his first stint was cut short in 2019 due to work permit issues, but Juventus want to cash in on the former Aston Villa midfielder and City only appear willing to sanction a straight loan with no obligation to purchase in the summer. 

Juve are also making noises of playing hardball with their valuation of 24-year-old full back Andrea Cambiaso, a possible replacement for club captain Walker.

Ederson at Atalanta has long-standing admirers around the City Football Academy and, with Gian Piero Gasperini’s side falling seven points behind Serie A leaders Napoli in the Scudetto race, could it be that there is room for manoeuvre? 

City have remained sceptical about that prospect and Atalanta have now progressed in the Champions League too after a strong group-stage campaign.

What is clear is that City have been proactive in the opening three weeks of this window, one Begiristain usually refuses to entertain becoming embroiled in, yet that there remains work to do if they are to make a dent in this season. Paris only served to further highlight that need.