As we edge towards the end of the 2022/23 season, Manchester City are once again chasing the Treble.
Pep Guardiola’s side are second in the Premier League but many believe the title race is in their control, while they are also in the FA Cup final and the Champions League semi-final. The latter remains the ultimate prize yet to find its home at the Etihad Stadium, and the main goal when Sheikh Mansour bought the club.
The start of the 2023/24 will mark 15 years since Sheikh Mansour bought Man City, on 1 September 2008, and boy have things changed since that date. Over the years Man City have grown to become a super power not just in Premier League but also the continent, building a club filled with talent.
Of course, that talent hasn’t been free, and Man City have spent quite a bit of money over the years to build their various super teams. A good number of those players have been signed from Premier League rivals too. Since Sheikh Mansour took over, Man City have spent around £600,000,000 on players from clubs currently in the Premier League (across 15 years). Plus, of course, more from those who have been in the top flight at some stage.
But it hasn’t just been incomings. Man City have also sold players to clubs currently in the Premier League, with sales exceeding over £250,000,000 across the 15 years.
So the question is, which current Premier League club has brought in the most money from selling players to Man City? And who has spent the most on signing from Man City? We’ve ranked the 19 clubs by their ‘net spend’ (money from sales minus money spent on signings) from dealings with Man City — not City’s net spend on them.
We’re also looking at first-team signings only (going either way), so moves between academies have not been taken into account.
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Find the latest Premier League winner odds for the 2025-26 season here:
PREMIER LEAGUE TITLE ODDS | |||||||
| Club | Sky Bet | ||||||
| Liverpool | 15/8 | ||||||
| Arsenal | 9/4 | ||||||
| Manchester City | 11/4 | ||||||
| Chelsea | 9/1 | ||||||
| Newcastle | 33/1 | ||||||
| Manchester United | 33/1 | ||||||
| Tottenham | 50/1 | ||||||
| Aston Villa | 66/1 | ||||||
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Southampton (-£48.5m)
Signed: Angus Gunn, Gavin Bazunu, Romeo Lavia, Samuel Edozie, Juan Larios
Money spent: £48m
Sold: None
Money received: None
Southampton have sold a lot of players to Premier League rivals over the years, most notably to Liverpool, who once routinely plundered their ranks, but they’ve been safe from the covetous eyes of Man City. Instead, it has been Saints who have been doing the pillaging, bringing in four of their academy stars last summer.
With such a traffic jam of talent preventing City’s brightest prospects breaking into the first team, Gavin Bazunu, Romeo Lavia, Samuel Edozie and Juan Larios all traded Man City for Southampton at the start of the season. Bazunu has been a mainstay between the sticks, while Lavia has since gone on to be capped by Belgium, such has been his midfield presence for the relegation-threatened club. And, of course, who could forget Angus Gunn.
Chelsea (-£41m)
Signed: Raheem Sterling, Willy Caballero, Daniel Sturridge
Money spent: £51m
Sold: Wayne Bridge
Money received: £10m
Chelsea have the worst net spend when it comes to dealings with Man City, and that is mostly down to their signing of Raheem Sterling last summer. The Englishman set Chelsea back £47.5m not including add-ons, and unfortunately for Blues fans he hasn’t had the desired impact, struggling alongside so many of his teammates this season. Willy Caballero was a free transfer, while Daniel Sturridge’s base compensation price was £3.5m before any performance-based rises.
At the same time, Chelsea have sold just one player to Man City in the Sheikh Mansour era, with Wayne Bridge moving to the blue side of Manchester in January 2009. In the summer of 2008, Chelsea did also sell Tal Ben Haim and Shaun Wright-Phillips to Man City, but both moves came before the takeover.
Arsenal (-£4m)
Signed: Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko
Money spent: £75m
Sold: Bacary Sagna, Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure
Money received: £71m
This is an interesting one as Arsenal have spent more on signing players from Man City than they have received selling, despite the difference in numbers. Last summer, Arsenal broke their Man City seal with the arrivals of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, both of whom have been fantastic in helping the Gunners become serious title contenders despite their injury problems.
There was a time when Man City raided Arsenal for fun, and Gunners fans may still be hurting over the departures particularly of Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Adebayor, who brought in £25m each from their sales. Of the players to leave Arsenal for Man City, that pair seemed to get the most stick from Gunners fans, and who can forget Adebayor’s celebration after scoring against Arsenal.
Brentford (£0)
Signed: Louis Hutton, Shay Logan
Money spent: £0
Sold: None
Money received: £0
Brentford are one of a few teams to have done very little business with Man City, but still some. Their main arrival from the Etihad came in the form of youngster Shay Logan, who actually played for Man City in the Premier League against Portsmouth in 2009. He was signed by Brentford by former Man City player Uwe Rosler and went on to make over 100 appearances for the club.
Brighton (£0)
Signed: Wayne Bridge, David Gonzalez, Abdul Razak, Gai Assulin
Money spent: £0
Sold: None
Money received: £0
Oh how different things would be if Man City had signed Marc Cucurella last summer as they had wanted. The Spaniard would have been the first player to switch the Amex for the Etihad in the Sheikh Mansour era, with three going the other way. Both Wayne Bridge and Abdul Razak joined the Seagulls on loan from Man City, while David Gonzalez was a free transfer. Only Bridge did anything of note with Brighton, playing 42 times in the 2012/13 campaign.
But, of course, Brighton fans won’t be quick to forget about Gai Assulin. Once dubbed ‘the Israeli Messi’ during his time in Barcelona’s famed La Masia, the mercurial wing-wizard joined City in 2010 and it looked as though the club pulled off a major transfer coup. Ultimately he didn’t live up to the hype and has since faded to obscurity, but he did have a brief spell at the Amex on loan from City in 2012 and looked lively in spells.
Crystal Palace (£0)
Signed: Ryan McGivern, Alex Nimely
Money spent: £0
Sold: None
Money received: £0
Just two players has moved between Crystal Palace and Man City since Sheikh Mansour took over, with Ryan McGivern joining the Eagles on loan for a month at the start of the 2011/12 season (playing five times), and Alex Nimely doing so in 2013 to little success.
Man Utd (£0)
Signed: Frederic Veseli
Money spent: £0
Sold: Owen Hargreaves
Money received: £0
In January 2012, Man City were halfway to beating Man Utd to the Premier League title, but without knowing what was to come, youngster Frederic Veseli made a bold switch. The defender had been a previous target of Man Utd having captained Switzerland to victory at the 2009 U17 World Cup, but opted to join Man City.
Unhappy with the potential paths to first-team football and with his contract up, Man City were happy to let Veseli leave on a free deal – apparently going against Roberto Mancini’s hopes.
“Mancini was disappointed and was always asking me to renew. I didn’t know what to say to him. My contract was up and City released me and signed a paper saying I could leave on a free,” Veseli told The Athletic last year.
“The next day, I drove to City’s training ground at Carrington to collect my stuff. I didn’t tell anybody what I was going to do next. I told the gaffer that I was leaving the club and he asked me where I was going.
“I told him: ‘United’. He couldn’t believe it, but he had to take training. He wished me good luck.”
Also in the 2011/12 season, albeit the summer of 2011, Owen Hargreaves went the other way, switching Old Trafford for the Etihad, making just four appearances.
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Nottingham Forest (£0m)
Signed: Arijanet Muric, Greg Cunningham
Money spent: £0
Sold: None
Money received: £0
Just two moves from Man City to Nottingham Forest as Arijanet Muric joined the Reds on loan for the 2019/20 season, though it was a disappointing one as he played just five times across all competitions, while Greg Cunningham joined on loan in 2011/12.
Wolves (£0m)
Signed: Louie Moulden
Money spent: £0
Sold: None
Money received: £0
Wolves picked up academy goalkeeper Louie Moulden on a free transfer in the summer, and that is the entire extent of their business with Sheikh Mansour in the Premier League era.
Newcastle (£7m)
Signed: None
Money spent: £0
Sold: Shay Given
Money received: £7m
Onto the teams to have made a profit from their dealings with Man City, Newcastle have not signed anyone from the Etihad and have had one outgoing. Shay Given made the move at the end of the 2009 winter transfer window, signing a four-and-a-half-year deal. He only spent two years at Man City before moving on, but still made 69 appearances and kept 20 clean sheets as their first-choice shot-stopper.
Fulham (£7m)
Signed: Tosin Adarabioyo, Seko Fofana
Money spent: £2m
Sold: Patrick Roberts
Money received: £9m
As they were trying to build for the future alongside their star-studded squad, Man City signed Patrick Roberts from Fulham in the 2015 summer transfer window. Tipped to become a future Premier League star, Roberts was also intended to bolster the homegrown ranks at Man City who had seen five English players leave in the same window. Unfortunately for Roberts, things didn’t quite work out at Man City, and he left permanently in January 2022 having made just three first-team appearances. Fulham meanwhile signed Tosin Adarabioyo in 2020 for £2m and loaned Seko Fofana in 2014/15.
West Ham (£14m)
Signed: Wayne Bridge, Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta
Money spent: £0
Sold: Carlos Tevez, Craig Bellamy
Money received: £14m
Two loan moves and a free transfer, West Ham’s only arrivals from Man City have been — for want of a better word — their undesirables; the players surplus to requirements at the Etihad, not that the Hammers minded too much, with Pablo Zabaleta proving a huge hit with the fans.
In Sheikh Mansour’s first full transfer window as owner, Craig Bellamy joined for £14m, and played 51 times before leaving for Liverpool. But the bigger signing from West Ham was Carlos Tevez. Some people may misremember this as a signing from Man Utd, but Tevez was only on loan at Old Trafford. But there’s a massive asterisk by this signing. Although Man City paid £25.5m for Tevez, they actually paid the Argentinian’s advisors who, at the the time, owned his economic rights — rather than West Ham themselves. So the Hammers received diddly squat.
There were some ups and downs for Tevez at Man City but he left with a Premier League winners’ medal and 73 goals in 148 games, including 20 to win the 2010/11 Premier League Golden Boot.
Tottenham (£31.5m)
Signed: Emmanuel Adebayor, Vedran Corluka
Money spent: £13.5m
Sold: Kyle Walker
Money received: £45m
Now this is an interesting one as Vedran Corluka was sold by Man City to Tottenham on the same day Sheikh Mansour bought the club in 2008. He definitely wouldn’t have had any part in the £8.5m sale, but it does come under his reign. Three years later Emmanuel Adebayor joined Tottenham on loan from Man City (missing the Premier League title win) and made the move permanent the following summer, playing 113 times in total for the North London club.
There has been just one move from Tottenham to Man City but it was a big one, as Kyle Walker moved for an initial fee of £45m in 2017 – ending an eight-year stay at Spurs. It’s fair to say this one has worked well for Man City and Walker, as he has formed a big part of their title-winning defences and is still an experienced head now.
Leeds (£34m)
Signed: Jack Harrison, David Gonzalez, Ian Poveda, Adam Clayton
Money spent: £11m
Sold: Kalvin Phillips
Money received: £45m
Kalvin Phillips joining Man City was one of the big moves of last summer, as he said goodbye to boyhood club Leeds being tipped to become one of England’s best midfielders. Unfortunately, right now, it appears that Leeds got the best out of the deal recouping £45m while Phillips has struggled with injuries.
Moving the other way a year earlier was Jack Harrison, who had actually spent three years on loan at Leeds helping them gain promotion to the Premier League before making the move permanent. Man City received £11m for that move, a profit on what they had paid New York City to sign Harrison, which will probably go down as a win for the club. Leeds have also signed David Gonzalez, Ian Poveda-Ocampo and Adam Clayton from Man City, the latter for an undisclosed fee — though it wasn’t expected to be too much.
Leicester (£35m)
Signed: Kelechi Iheanacho, Michael Johnson, Ben Mee, Ryan McGivern, Greg Cunningham
Money spent: £25m
Sold: Riyad Mahrez
Money received: £60m
Man City have signed just one player from Leicester but it was a massive one, for a big fee, as they paid £60m for Riyad Mahrez. After a slow start to life under Pep Guardiola, the 2015/16 PFA Player of the Year has thrived at Man City and has helped them win numerous Premier League titles as well as becoming regulars in the Champions League semi-final.
Despite signing four players from Man City, Leicester only paid for one of them, spending £25m on Kelechi Iheanacho. It was always going to be tough for Iheanacho to break into the Man City first team with the talent ahead of him, but he’s had similar problems at Leicester, unable to unseat Jamie Vardy despite performing well in cup competitions. The other four arrivals, including Ben Mee, were all loan moves.
Bournemouth (£40m)
Signed: Donal McDermott, Morgan Rogers
Money spent: £0
Sold: Nathan Ake
Money received: £40m
Some may have worried about the fee at the time but right now £40m for Nathan Ake is looking like a bargain. The Dutchman has been fantastic at left-back for Guardiola this season and has always done the job he is asked without complaint, despite playing in a few positions for Man City. Ake is probably hitting his peak right now too, just turned 28 and while there were doubts about his Man City status in the past, there certainly won’t be now.
Donal McDermott spent a few months on loan at Bournemouth from Man City at the end of the 2010/11 season before leaving the club permanently. Morgan Rogers meanwhile spent time on loan at the club last season and helped them to promotion.
Liverpool (£44m)
Signed: James Milner, Kolo Toure, Craig Bellamy
Money spent: £0
Sold: Raheem Sterling
Money received: £44m
Liverpool have done pretty well in their business with Man City, signing three players for absolutely nothing including James Milner, one of the greatest free transfers in Premier League history. The Englishman has been at the heart of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, playing pretty much everywhere on the pitch except for in goal, and proving reliable (until age finally caught up with him, though he still chips in with some sturdy performances even now). Craig Bellamy and Kolo Toure were also good free signings, with the former winning the EFL Cup.
Going the other way, Raheem Sterling was just 20 years old when Man City paid an initial fee of £49m to sign him from Liverpool in 2015, a move which did upset Reds fans. But Liverpool had their own success, while Sterling was also winning things at Man City, scoring 131 goal in 339 games while claiming four Premier League titles, one FA Cup and five EFL Cups.
Everton (£73m)
Signed: Fabian Delph, Eliaquim Mangala, Gareth Barry, Jo
Money spent: £8.5m
Sold: John Stones, Jack Rodwell, Joleon Lescott
Money received: £81.5m
Man City and Everton have done a fair few deals with each other, with seven players making the move between the Etihad and Goodison Park. Everton have signed four players from Man City with two being loan moves in Jo and Elaquim Mangala (to little success). The Toffees had a lot more success with Gareth Barry, a Premier League history maker who formed a big part of Everton’s midfield for three years after joining on a free transfer. Fabian Delph was the only player Everton paid for, but he struggled with injuries.
When signing from Everton, Man City have gone pretty big, spending £12m on Jack Rodwell, £22m on Joleon Lescott and £47.5m on John Stones. The less said about Rodwell, the better, but Lescott definitely felt worth the money even though that was a bigger price in 2009 than it is now. The same can be said with Stones, whose £47.5m move was deemed excessive at the time and came at the end of a dramatic transfer saga also including Chelsea, but the Englishman has been quality for Man City, especially this season.
Aston Villa (£110.5m)
Signed: Douglas Luiz, Scott Sinclair, Micah Richards, Shay Given, Stephen Ireland, Richard Dunne
Money spent: £35.5m
Sold: Jack Grealish, Fabian Delph, James Milner, Gareth Barry
Money received: £146m
Aston Villa have signed more players from Sheikh Mansour’s Man City than any other current Premier League team, and only Micah Richards was a free transfer. Douglas Luiz was the most expensive arrival at £15m, and it was a good price for the midfielder who is excellent on his day. Shay Given, Stephen Ireland and Richard Dunne were all excellent signings for Aston Villa, while Scott Sinclair did a job too.
The money Villa spent was completely offset, and then some, by the £100m sale of Jack Grealish in 2021 but he is not the only player Man City have signed from Villa Park. Preceding Grealish at the Etihad were Fabian Delph, James Milner and Gareth Barry, all of whom left Man City with Premier League titles.