Man City transfer spending explained: Elliot Anderson move smashes British record transfer fee

Manchester City’s transfer spending has hit £824m in three years after signing Elliot Anderson in a British-record £116m deal.

Anderson becomes the club's most expensive signing, eclipsing the £100m fee paid for Jack Grealish, and ranks as the third-most expensive signing in Premier League history.

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City's spending surge

Only free-spending Chelsea have splashed more cash than Manchester City since the summer of 2023, with the Blues spending £1bn.

However, City have also recouped £443m from player sales in that time, so City's net spend since that summer stands at around £381m.

That ranks City fifth among Premier League clubs, behind Spurs, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool.

But City's net spend ramped up to £146.3m last season - their highest since 2017/18 - and this summer is starting with a £116m dent in the coffers, suggesting the rebuild could continue under new head coach Enzo Maresca.

Sales have helped fund the rebuild

City have benefited from selling academy graduates, but there have also been questionable mistakes along the way.

Guardiola admitted the club made an error selling Cole Palmer to Chelsea for £42.5m, while Morgan Rogers spent four years at City before joining Middlesbrough and seeing his stock soar at Aston Villa.

Liam Delap, James McAtee and Oscar Bobb have also sought pastures new after breaking into the first team.

However, the scale of the required rebuild becomes clear when Ederson, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Kyle Walker, Ilkay Gundogan, Riyad Mahrez, Aymeric Laporte and Joao Cancelo are among the departures since 2023.

How much has the XI changed?

The graphic below shows City's most common starting XI in 2022/23, of which only three players remain at the club: Erling Haaland, Rodri and Jack Grealish.

Grealish spent last season on loan at Everton and is likely to seek a move away for first-team football this season, while Rodri has also been linked with a move away from the Etihad after his stop-start campaigns.

City's shift towards youth

The shift to youth was notably abrupt.

On average, 44 per cent of City's starters were aged 29 or older in 2024/25, when they finished third in the table behind Liverpool and Arsenal. That was their highest ratio since 2016/17 - Guardiola's first season in charge.

Last season, that figure plummeted to just 19 per cent - City's lowest during the Guardiola era.

For context, 44 per cent was almost on par with the league's oldest team, Fulham, last season, while 19 per cent now positions City as one of the younger teams in the league.

A more energetic and direct City?

City also deployed a more direct style of play last term, utilising their new youth and pace - registering more attempted take-ons than any other campaign during the Guardiola era.

Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki, Jeremy Doku, Tijjani Reijnders and academy graduate Nico O'Reilly were among the club's top 10 players for Premier League minutes.

Indeed, the majority of City's top 10 players for distance covered, sprints and top speeds last term are primarily members of City's new guard, including the likes of Antoine Semenyo, Abdukodir Khusanov, Savinho and Omar Marmoush.

And Anderson fits the bill perfectly, ranking second for distance covered last season - behind only Everton's James Garner.

After the marquee Anderson signing and Maresca's appointment, what comes next is just as intriguing: whether spending continues, whether the style sharpens into something quicker and more direct, and whether Anderson's arrival spells the end of Rodri's seven-year spell at the Etihad.

(c) Sky Sports 2026: Man City transfer spending explained: Elliot Anderson move smashes British record transfer fee