Any City fans hoping for major January arrivals would have been left disappointed, but the promise of Guardiola, and his list of big-name targets, mean exciting times lay ahead
Few expected fireworks at Manchester City on transfer deadline day. Any Isco interest had been extinguished early on when his idol, Zinedine Zidane, took charge at Real Madrid. Schalke made a song and dance about their asking price for Leroy Sane, who will most likely move for big bucks in the summer, and there were a host of other names, big and not-so-big, supposedly on City's wide-reaching radar.
It had been a quiet window up until that point, with only Anthony Caceres being signed from Central Coast Mariners and then, controversially, loaned to sister club Melbourne City. George Evans, who represented City at every level, moved to Reading on a permanent deal.
There was no sign of any new faces being smuggled into the Etihad Campus on Monday. Manuel Pellegrini sat down at the start of his press conference and confirmed the inevitable, that he would not be bringing anybody in.
The most dramatic moment of the day (so far)Manuel Pellegrini tells the media after his press conference that he is leaving
Posted by Sam Lee on Monday, 1 February 2016
The jousting with the media continued for another 15 minutes before the manager calmly explained that he would be leaving at the end of the season. Everybody expected that but nobody expected the way it would be delivered. Within moments the club confirmed Pep Guardiola would be taking over, another expected turn of events delivered in surreal circumstances.
Immediately thoughts turned away from the two deadline day deals that everybody was expecting - Patrick Roberts moved to Celtic on an 18-month loan (which was actually announced as Pellegrini sat down with the press), and Bruno Zuculini went to AEK Athens on loan.
The Monday agenda was dominated by Guardiola's arrival at the end of the season. Details of how City sealed a deal with their long-term target, how they saw off interest from United and Chelsea, and where Pellegrini himself may end up, all came to light.
BREAKING: Pep Guardiola to take over in summer
Posted by Sam Lee on Monday, 1 February 2016
Then the transfer talk quickly followed. Would Bayern Munich's David Alaba, Thiago and/or Robert Lewandowski be moving with him? Does this mean Lionel Messi is more likely to rock up in Manchester? If not, then maybe Neymar. Maybe Luis Suarez.
Goal understands there's an interest, of course, in each of Barcelona's front three, but City hope to exploit their new manager's knowledge of the German market when they go in search of reinforcements this summer, with Julian Weigl - an intelligent deep-lying midfielder in the Sergio Busquets mould - a key target. It is hoped he would help Pep get his message across on the pitch, presumably as Busquets himself and Thiago are unavailable in the short-term.
John Stones, Paul Pogba and Sane are other names high up the list. Those three alone would cost more than £150m at current rates. But City need more than that, especially with Yaya Toure likely to head up a summer exodus of players that do not fit the Pep template.
It all means that while City let the January window pass by without major incident, the months leading up to the summer window, and the summer itself, will be far, far more lively.
Guardiola is a huge step towards the club's designs on European domination, but there's a long way to go yet.
- Goal