Manchester City ended the summer transfer window having easily made the biggest profit in the Premier League.
A host of player sales, headlined by Julian Alvarez’s £82million move to Atletico Madrid meant that the club brought in almost £150million. The £33million arrival of winger Savinho was the only fee the club paid out, with Ilkay Gundogan returning to the club on a free transfer.
The club’s lack of activity was not overly surprising, considering Pep Guardiola’s side were fresh off a record fourth straight Premier League win, with the squad in rude health.
This is evident by the fact that City have begun the Premier League with four straight victories, but despite scoring 11 goals in this quartet, they could be set to welcome another attacking talent to the squad in January.
City completed the signing of River Plate’s promising attacking midfielder Claudio Echeverri in January, with the agreement seeing the 18-year-old remaining with the Argentine side for the rest of 2024.
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In recent months River have expressed an interest in keeping the teenager at the club beyond the end of this year, but according to TNT Sports, City are digging their heels in and insisting he leaves his homeland at the end of the year.
The report cites River Plate general secretary Stéfano Di Carlo as claiming that City ‘don’t want to know anything about it’ when it comes to the issue of Echeverri’s future. In FourFourTwo's opinion, bringing the starlet to Manchester is surely an option – if only to send him on loan in Europe.
Guardiola will now be looking to assess the Argentina under-23 star’s progress when he arrives in Manchester in January, with the prospect of a mid-season loan believed to be still in play.
City signed Echeverri in a £12.5million move back in January of this year, with the playmaker under contract until 2028. The youngster was handed his River debut in June 2023, by then-manager Martin Demichelis, who spent three seasons at Manchester City between 2013 and 2016. Echeverri has since made 36 appearances for River, scoring four goals.
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