Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca will soon see what a number of his players look like after what seemed to be unsuccessful loans
Claudio Echeverri of Girona FC reacts during the La Liga match between Girona FC and Elche CF
Manchester City playmaker Claudio Echeverri spent last season on loan with Bayer Leverkusen and then Girona
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Hugo Viana was brought in to continue the success that Txiki Begiristain had enjoyed for more than a decade at Manchester City, and people who know both men say they share many of the same qualities. When Begiristain decided it was time to leave, the Blues wanted somebody to keep them moving in the same direction.
That has largely happened, although there have already been some signs of how Viana does things differently. Whether it has been certain players or certain negotiations, there have been slight changes in City's approach to transfers in moments as the club moves into a new era.
There have been plenty of successes already, but one area where City will surely look to improve is in the loans market. Having signed or produced a clutch of top young talent, the intention last season was to get them all loan moves for the season that would bring them closer to being able to call the Etihad their home.
However, Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, Claudio Echeverri and Sverre Nypan all found themselves frozen out at the clubs they moved to while Vitor Reis and Divine Mukasa suffered relegation. There was some mitigation - Echeverri's move came against what the club wanted rather than with them, for instance - yet either all of the bad luck had come together or City were not as picky with their loan clubs as they had been.
City previously liked to keep their best youngsters at the Etihad so that they could be close to Pep Guardiola and absorb the competitive qualities of one of the best first team squads in world football. It was the making of Phil Foden when people kept suggesting he needed to go on loan, and also why Echeverri came to Manchester when he could have stayed for longer at River Plate or headed to Europe.
When loans were arranged, the plan was to target stable clubs pushing for success that played a similar style of football to what they could expect in the first team in Manchester: do well in one good environment and then come back to another. The number of managerial sackings and on-field battles that their players went through last season was very much an exception to that.
From the outset, it felt like a string of underperformances as loan after loan did not look as successful as it could have been. Perhaps this will be another change though, and maybe the lessons that are learnt in a harder way than it used to be will add a different kind of value.
That is what new coach Enzo Maresca will be looking for when he welcomes most of these players back to first team training in a few weeks, and looks for who could have what is needed to stay in Manchester for the season and who is better off playing regular football with another loan. City are about to find out just how much their loans from the last year have cost their squad or added to it.