Anthony Gordon and Eberechi Eze of England train during an England Training Session
Anthony Gordon and Eberechi Eze of England train during an England Training Session (Image: 2024 Getty Images)
As summer transfer windows go, Man City's business was pretty modest.
Savinho arrived without much fanfare from French side Troyes, having impressed on loan with Spanish side Girona last season, and Ilkay Gundogan returned to the club on a free transfer from Barcelona.
Julian Alvarez was sold to Atletico Madrid, while Joao Cancelo (Al-Hilal), Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Southampton), Sergio Gomez (Real Sociedad) and Tommy Doyle (Wolves) also recouped City some money through their sales.
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But unlike previous summers, City never brought in an eye-capturing transfer. It was a summer window that saw many clubs wary of spending big fees with the public glare on profit and sustainability rules compliance greater than ever.
However, that could have been different had they followed through with their interest in Crystal Palace playmaker Eberechi Eze.
Having helped England reach the final of EURO 2024, off the back of an excellent season with Palace, Eze was touted as Kevin De Bruyne's long term successor at City.
The Belgian international is in the final year of his contract at the Etihad Stadium and he is still yet to sign a new deal at the club.
As such, reports in the summer suggested City saw Eze as his potential heir and were weighing up whether to activate his £70million release clause.
Having previously thought about bidding him for him the previous summer, when City opted to sign Matheus Nunes from Wolves instead, Pep Guardiola is said to rate Eze very highly.
In the end, a bid never came and whether Palace would have been open to selling Eze, having already sold Michael Olise, their other star player, to Bayern Munich in the same window, remains to be seen.
That release clause is now said to have expired but City's admiration for Eze certainly hasn't. However, the 26-year-old will now be plotting their downfall this weekend when they make the trip to Selhurst Park.
City ended a run of seven games without victory in all competitions on Wednesday when they ran out 3-0 winners over Nottingham Forest.
However, with the gap between themselves and Premier League leaders Liverpool now nine points, they have no more margin for error if they want to win a fifth league title in a row.
But they face a Palace side who, although are struggling at the wrong end of the table, have lost just one of their last seven matches in all competitions.
City could really do without Eze sending them an untimely reminder of why they rate him so highly when the two sides meet on Saturday.