Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has made a big mistake in the transfer market that could come back to haunt him three times over.
The Citizens were busy in the summer transfer window as they overhauled their team and reduced the number of players, as per Pep Guardiola’s wishes.
This meant that a number of exciting talents who would have likely been in a squad role for most other Premier League clubs ended up leaving on loan instead.
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Manchester City’s decision to let one particular player go on loan is now looking worse with each passing week.
Claudio Echeverri of Bayer Leverkusen is challenged by Isaac Schmidt of Werder Bremen during the Bundesliga match between SV Werder Bremen and Bayer 04 Leverkusen at Weserstadion on August 30, 2025
Photo by Christof Koepsel/Getty Images
Claudio Echeverri loan deal is already backfiring
Claudio Echeverri is one of the players Man City have opted to loan out this summer, with Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen landing him for the season.
However, Man City then ended up being drawn against Leverkusen in the Champions League, and there is no rule to stop loanees playing against their parent club in the competition.
This means Echeverri could very well line up against City and potentially deal damage to his parent club in the Champions League.
However, Echeverri has barely been playing for Leverkusen, which presents another problem for City.
The 19-year-old only has 35 or so minutes under his belt at Leverkusen, so it’s not as though he is getting much experience as things stand.
The third problem that the Echeverri loan deal causes for City is that he would have been great cover for Rayan Cherki, who is out for two months.
And to make things worse, Echeverri cannot be recalled until January, so City will just have to deal with it.
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City’s decision to loan Echeverri out is already showing signs of backfiring.
Most Premier League managers would have loved to keep Echeverri in their squad, even if the intention was to use him as a squad rotation player.
However, Guardiola will not compromise on his squad size – he admitted he threatened to leave City if he wasn’t allowed to have a small squad.
Sadly for Guardiola, clubs simply cannot afford to have small squads these days, because of the sheer workload players have at club and international level.
It is inevitable that squads will get decimated by injuries, suspensions and fatigue over the course of the season, which is why strength in depth is such a big deal these days.
And unless Guardiola decides to accept that a medium-sized squad is the bare minimum in top-level football these days, then he risks getting left behind.