Manchester City have committed £824m in transfer fees over the past three years, with the British-record signing of Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest for £116m pushing their rebuild into a new register.

Anderson, an England midfielder who caught the eye at the recent World Cup, becomes City's most expensive acquisition to date — surpassing the £100m spent on Jack Grealish — and stands as the third-costliest signing in Premier League history.

The scale of City's spending

Only Chelsea have outspent Manchester City among English clubs since the summer of 2023, with the Blues splashing close to £1 billion during that window. City, however, have offset their outlay by raising £443m through player sales, leaving a net spend of roughly £381m — placing them fifth in the Premier League net-spend table, behind Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Arsenal, and Liverpool.

Last season's net spend of £146.3m was City's highest since 2017/18, and the £116m outlay on Anderson this summer signals that new head coach Enzo Maresca's overhaul is far from complete.

A generation of departures

The depth of the task becomes apparent when you consider who has left since 2023: Ederson, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Kyle Walker, Ilkay Gundogan, Riyad Mahrez, Aymeric Laporte, and Joao Cancelo are all gone. Of the XI that most commonly started for City in their 2022/23 title-winning campaign, only three players remain at the club — Erling Haaland, Rodri, and Jack Grealish.

Grealish spent last season on loan at Everton and is widely expected to seek a permanent exit in search of regular first-team football. Rodri, too, has been linked with a departure from the Etihad Stadium following two injury-interrupted campaigns.

Several younger players have also moved on after breaking into the squad. Liam Delap, James McAtee, and Oscar Bobb have all left, while manager Pep Guardiola acknowledged that selling Cole Palmer to Chelsea for £42.5m proved to be a costly misjudgement. Morgan Rogers, who spent four years at City before joining Middlesbrough, went on to shine at Aston Villa.

City's shift towards youth

Alongside the transfer activity, City's squad profile has transformed dramatically. In 2024/25, 44 percent of their average starters were aged 29 or older — the highest proportion since Guardiola's debut season in 2016/17, and roughly comparable to Fulham, the Premier League's oldest side that term. Last season, that figure fell to just 19 percent, making City one of the younger squads in the division.

The rejuvenated roster brought a change in approach on the pitch. City registered more attempted take-ons last season than in any previous campaign under Guardiola, leaning into the pace and directness of their new generation. Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki, Jeremy Doku, Tijjani Reijnders, and academy product Nico O'Reilly all featured among the club's top 10 players for Premier League minutes.

With Anderson now added to that mix, the question for Maresca is whether this rapidly assembled group can challenge Liverpool and Arsenal at the summit once more.