Manchester City’s promise of quick summer spending has begun with the agreement of a transfer fee with AC Milan for the Netherlands international midfielder Tijjani Reijnders.
The 26-year-old will cost €55 million and has already agreed personal terms for a five-year contract. He will become the first addition of the raft of signings the club chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak pledged before City take part in the Club World Cup. A special transfer window has been opened for Fifa’s new competition.
Reijnders, principally an attacking midfielder, was a bright spark in a disappointing season for Milan, scoring 15 goals. With Kevin De Bruyne departed, and a number of other players expected to head for the exit, Jack Grealish probably included, a new-look City, rather different from the deposed champions of 2024-25, is being built at pace. They are also linked with Rayan Aït-Nouri, the Wolves full back.
“We already started that rebuild of this team in January,” Khaldoon said in a club interview last week. “We have clearly identified who exactly are the targets, in what positions, and we have our clear number one option, our clear number two option. Our objective is to try to be ready with the new squad for the Club World Cup.”
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The January window saw City spend around £180 million (€214 million) on Abdukodir Khusanov, Omar Marmoush, Nico González, Vitor Reis, Juma Bah and Christian McFarlane with Claudio Echeverri, signed the previous year, thrown on as a surprise substitute in the FA Cup Final loss to Crystal Palace.
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Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, has made it clear he does not want to work with a bloated squad, despite City’s heavy workload in the US and next season, his team having confirmed qualification for the Champions League. He said last month: “As a manager I cannot train 24 players and every time I select I have to have four, five, six stay in Manchester at home because they cannot play. This is not going to happen. I said to the club. I don’t want that.”
A move for Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz, linked heavily with Liverpool, was not firmed up, reportedly on grounds of cost.
The transfer window for Premier League clubs is open between June 1st and June 10th and then from June 16th to September 1st.
