(Football news) Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has expressed his sadness at three players departing the club this summer but has insisted that the transfer income from those sales is proof that the club is sustainable. Since the takeover by Sheikh Mansour in 2008, Manchester City have been heavily criticised for violating Financial Fair Play rules by investing heavily in the transfer market, relying on the owner instead of income generated by the club. 

The club were banned from the Champions League for two seasons in 2020 after UEFA detected a breach in the FFP regulations but the decision was overturned when City appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). However, they were still made to pay €10m in fines. The club were found to have overstated sponsorship revenue and break-even information in accounts submitted to UEFA between 2012 and 2016 and the CAS did not give a clear reason for uplifting the ban. 

Fast forward to present day and City have now sold Raheem Sterling (£50m), Gabriel Jesus (£45m) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (£30m). The trio have won four Premier League titles since Guardiola’s arrival in 2016 and the club have sold seven other players as part of their squad overhaul. Speaking about the departures, Guardiola said “In part I'm a little bit sad that these important players have gone. But it's a business. To invest you have to sell players otherwise you can't be sustainable. I know the image of the club is that we always buy, buy, buy. But we sell too. We sell important players for big money. All the clubs know today selling players is not easy. All clubs want to do it but not everyone can."

In a sharp contrast to their transfer activity in the past, the revenue generated by City through sales in this transfer window is more than any other team in the Premier League so far. However, the club have also invested some serious money on incoming transfers such as the signings of Erling Haaland for £51.2m, Kalvin Phillips for £45m and Julian Alvarez for a base fee of £14.1m which could potentially rise to £30m. They have also been linked to Brighton defender Marc Cucurella who has submitted a transfer request in order to force a move.

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