City’s spending this window outweighs that of the rest of the Premier League clubs combined, with the acquisition of Gonzalez taking their outlay to about £180m, compared with £177m for the other 19 teams.
It is still well short of City’s biggest-ever window when they handed over £225m in the summer of 2017 to bring in Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy, Bernardo Silva, Ederson, Danilo and Douglas Luiz.
Centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov was the first through the Etihad doors during this window, with City paying £33.6m to Lens for a player who only cost the French club £84,000 in July 2023.
Palmeiras defender Reis arrived for £29.6m, despite the 19-year-old only making 22 senior career appearances and Marmoush, who scored 15 goals in 17 Bundesliga appearances this season for Eintracht Frankfurt, was the third signing for £59m.
Bah joined from Real Valladolid in controversial circumstances after the Spanish club accused City of encouraging the 18-year-old to break his contract.
City’s huge investment in the squad comes as they still wait to discover if they will face any punishment for 115 alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules.
“Manchester City have been very successful financially over recent years,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“Under these profitability and sustainability rules, you are allowed to lose £105m over a rolling three-year period. City have probably made somewhere in the region of £160-170m worth of profit because there has been an awful lot of players leaving the club – as well as the benefits of qualifying for Europe every year, the bonuses from sponsors and broadcasters for winning all of these trophies. From a financial perspective, they are in a really strong position.
“The 115 charges relates to the period 2009-2018, so that, to a certain extent, is ancient history. When it does come to pass that we get a judgement, we will have to have a complete reset I think in what they can spend going forwards.”
