Enzo Maresca
Enzo Maresca has a wealth of attacking talent at his disposal (Image: ©INPHO/Paul Nealon)
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Enzo Maresca has fitted the final piece into a summer jigsaw which is proving to be one of the most expensive of all time.
From the moment Maresca agreed to replace Pep Guardiola as manager of Manchester City, he put signing Enzo Fernandez on top of his wish list. And like Guardiola before him, the club's mega-rich owners have been more than happy to give their manager what he wants.
Just a few weeks ago Elliot Anderson arrived from Nottingham Forest for a club record £116m. But it's a record which has now been smashed to smithereens, with City agreeing to give Chelsea £125m for Fernandez.
Anderson has been bought to replace Rodri, who left for Barcelona last month. So what was the thinking behind City's determination to bring Fernandez to the Etihad as well?
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While Fernandez has operated in a holding midfield role before, his best work has come higher up the pitch. It's understood Maresca, who managed the Argentine at Chelsea and formed a strong relationship with him, wants the World Cup winner to create and score goals in a more advanced position.
All will become clear in the coming weeks, as Fernandez settles into a new team he was so desperate to join. Or will it?
It feels like Maresca has been in the blue half of Manchester two minutes, but already has a squad of creative and attacking players now unrivalled in the top flight.
More than £300m alone has been spent on three midfielders, in the shape of Fernandez, Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi. Where teenage sensation Bouaddi fits into the equation, remains to be seen. But the Moroccan midfielder hasn't cost £85m just to make up the numbers.
There are also the likes of Jeremy Doku, Antoine Semenyo, Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden to factor in, too. Have I forgotten anyone? While in City's opening league game of the season at home to Bournemouth, Nico O'Reilly operated on the left side of a front three.
Elliot Anderson
Elliot Anderson will look to fill the boots of Rodri at Man City
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City won't be lacking width, flair and excitement going forward. While Erling Haaland remains the goal scoring machine he's always been.
Maresca has more attacking talent than he might know what to do with. Which is all well and good if a team also boasts a cast iron defence. But the case for City's own defence remains unconvincing.
Nathan Ake has been sold to Fenerbahce, while John Stones left to join Inter Milan. In the Community Shield last month, City were ripped to pieces by Arsenal.
Maresca might be piecing together a side which resembles the Harlem Globetrotters going forward, but he also has one which remains vulnerable to the counter attack.
There appears to be a lack of balance, much like there is with Liverpool. Maresca is considering asking Marc Guehi to sit alongside Anderson as a second holding midfielder. But taking the England centre back out of a back four would be a huge risk.
City haven't kept a clean sheet in any of their opening three games of the new season.
Which means Maresca should remind himself of one of the oldest maxims in the game. Strikers and goals might well win games - but defences win titles.
But having finally got his man in Fernandez, it's doubtful Maresca was thinking about anything else but him as the window closed last night.
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