Manchester City happy with "risks" taken in summer deals for two stars

Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano has insisted the club are happy with the "risks" that were taken during the summer transfer window, especially in terms of player sales.

Pep Guardiola acquired another £120 million-worth of first-team signings in the form of Bournemouth's Nathan Ake, Valencia's Ferran Torres, and Benfica's Ruben Dias throughout the window.

However, there have also been four notable departures from the Manchester City squad. Club legend David Silva left on a free transfer after 10 years at the Etihad Stadium, while Claudio Bravo's contract also came to an end.

Leroy Sane finally completed his £40 million move to Bayern Munich, and Nicolas Otamendi was sent to Portugal as part of the club-record deal to capture Dias in the final weeks of the window.

Manchester City CEO happy with calculated "risks" in the transfer market

Speaking about Manchester City's summer business to the Leaders in Sport forum, Soriano seems more than content with both the incomings and outgoings. He's been quoted stating:

“I think the first thing to say is that when you look at the numbers at the end of the market they will be lower. There are less transactions being done and some of them are more prudent; there have been exchanges of players, loans and so on. But ultimately if you believe as we do that Covid is just a period of time and we have to carry on with our business, then we have to carry on with our business and we believe that revenues will come back and the team - especially Manchester City - is the engine of our business."

“If we don't play good football, we have no business. Our whole business is built on that so we can't negate or avoid that and we have to take some risks. We believe that the risks we are taking are very well measured. You have to look at the net spend, we sold Leroy Sane to Bayern Munich for €49m (£44m/$58m) and that got lost, that money needed to be reinvested and we bought Ferran Torres, a similar player, for €23m (£21m/$27m) so we sold for 49 and invested for 23."

“Sometimes these things are out of context but remember we need to continue playing good football and if we need a central defender we need a central defender. Otamendi has done so well for us but because of his age and other things the best thing to do is to switch him for a younger player. That has to be done.”

Napoli's Kalidou Koulibaly and Sevilla's Jules Kounde were both heavily targeted before Manchester City moved onto Dias, with the club seemingly intent on replacing Otamendi.

Manchester City had business decisions to make during the summer transfer window, and they made them with no hesitation, so Guardiola can have the best chance of success.