While City fans are biting their nails as the wait for signings goes on the fact that Pep Guardiola is to be seen jovially playing in celebrity golf tournaments and lending his support to political campaigns back in his native Catalonia should be seen as a positive.
Rival managers such as Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho by contrast have been publically criticising their club’s lack of activity so far in the window. No such bemoaning can be heard coming from Guardiola.
While targets were identified early, player’s holidays and tournaments like the Confederations Cup always hold up proceedings but once a name is concretely linked, fans like to see players sign quickly.
It is no secret that Guardiola trusts Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano implicitly and perhaps his casual demeanour is down to this and that he has identified his targets and left the dealings down to them.
The fans nervousness though is somewhat justified. Too often in recent windows City have laboured and bought poorly on occasion. This year there have been signs for optimism, however.
Bernardo Silva was brought in swiftly and without fuss. And on the other side of the transfer business City have finally started to bring in some money from selling players.
Promising young striker Enes Unal was sold for £12m to Villareal following an impressive season with Twente where he netted 18 goals in 32 games. More importantly they have inserted a buy-back clause (believed to be around £17m) for the player they have already made a £10m profit on which puts them in line with other European giants such as Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Kelechi Iheanacho is rumoured to be on the verge of a big money move to Leicester and it would not be surprising if a similar clause were part of that deal.
While City are finally recouping fees for players that are reasonable instead of letting them go for a song as in previous seasons (Dzeko and Tevez instantly spring to mind) it is the bringing in of players that the fans want to see. While it is possible that by the end of this week four or five new faces are at the club, there is nothing like the trepidation of a transfer window to put fans on edge.
In what is likely to be the biggest overhaul of the squad since the club were bought by Sheikh Mansour, the fans are anxiously waiting to see who turns out for the sky blues next season.
