The five best Manchester City signings of the 2010s

Since 2010, Manchester City have always been a powerhouse and a tough competitor for the Premier League title. However, the Citizens became a completely different force in the last couple of seasons.

Pep Guardiola has changed the way people used to look at Manchester City. The former Barcelona coach has turned around the club and now they have become invincible in the Premier League.

The real reason behind it is that the Citizens spent money on buying the right players. When other clubs were making big signings the City management recruited fantastic talent. Yes, City spent a lot on their defense but they bought a rock-solid back line that helped them in winning the league.

So, as we are talking about signings of Manchester City. Let’s look at five best signings of the Citizens that helped the club in gaining success:

Leroy Sane

Leroy Sane arrived at the Etihad from Schalke 04 in the 2016-17 season. The 22-year-old winger struggled a lot due to chronic nasal congestion in his first season. This didn’t only limit his playing time but also affected his performance on the pitch. As the player was aware of what is hurting his performance on the pitch. He decided to through surgery and come back stronger in the next season.

Well, the player wasn’t wrong as his performance improved in the 2017-18 season. The German winger scored 14 goals and provided 19 assists in his 49 appearances in all competitions. This phenomenal performance of Sane also helped him in winning the PFA Young Player of the Year award in 2017-18.

Raheem Sterling

In 2015, Raheem Sterling made a move to Liverpool’s Premier League competitor Manchester City. Many critics raised a lot of questions on this signing as the Englishman wasn’t successful with the Reds. However, joining the Citizens was not a bad decision for Sterling at all.

Yes, he did struggle in the staring couple of seasons, but he played a major role in the Premier League win of City in the 2017-18 season. The Englishman scored 23 goals and provided 17 assists in his 46 appearances across all competitions. Also, Sterling has already been involved in 19 goals in the current season, which clearly tells us that the Citizens did a right thing by bringing him to the Etihad.

Fernandinho

Manchester City bought Fernandinho from Shakhtar Donetsk in 2013. At that time, we didn’t think that he will become such a vital player for the Citizens in the future.

The Brazilian kept performing at the defensive midfielder position and that made him win the Premier League title in his debut season. After this season, we didn’t pay a lot of attention to him as the Citizens were outperformed by other clubs in the league.

Then arrived Guardiola, who made Fernandinho a defensive pillar for his side. The Brazilian is the main man in the midfield of the Citizens and all the game revolves around him. The prime reason being that he can adapt to any position and has great game instinct. City are going to struggle a lot in the future if they don’t find a proper replacement for the aging Brazilian soon.

John Stones

In the 2016-17 season, Manchester City signed John Stones from Everton for a transfer fee of £47.5 million. Many critics suggested that this is a waste of money as the Englishman wasn’t that successful with the Toffees. However, Guardiola knew what he is paying for at that time itself.

In the first season, the Englishman wasn’t that successful but in his second season, he became a pivotal part of the City back line. In the absence of Vincent Kompany, Stones has been a perfect replacement and a great partner to Nicolas Otamendi. The partnership of this duo was also one of the reasons, why City won the Premier League 2017-18 comfortably.

Even in the current season, Stones is performing brilliantly and that is the reason, why City have conceded the second least number of goals till now after Liverpool.

Kevin De Bruyne

Last but not the least, Kevin de Bruyne found the first spot in the five best signings of Manchester City. The Belgian midfielder wasn’t quite successful during his spell with Chelsea. This made him move to VFL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga. The City midfielder gained a lot of praise in his single season with the German club.

The Citizens got impressed with the Belgian midfielder and they got him back to the Premier League. This was one of the best decisions from City as De Bruyne was all set to impress everyone with his performances.

The Belgian midfielder became an integral part of the City midfield under Guardiola. After not having a great couple of seasons, De Bruyne got unleashed in the 2017-18 season. The midfielder was that brilliant that he was the prime contender to win the PFA Players' Player of the Year award. However, Mohamed Salah’s mind-blowing performance for Liverpool took away the chance of winning this award from the Belgian.