Man City can continue the transfer strategy with the dream Euro repeat

There’s nothing like a major international tournament for players to capture global attention in a way they wouldn’t otherwise.

As someone recently pointed out, if you only watched it without watching club football, you might be tempted to think that Xherdan Shaqiri was one of the best players in the world. From James Rodriguez to Enzo Fernandez, individual performances on such a big stage can be the perfect audition to land a big-money move.

Manchester City are generally not as reactionary in the transfer market, scouting their players for months and years rather than focusing on the breakout star of a tournament. However, they still got some excellent marks on their backs.

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Josko Gvardiol was a standout performer at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, helping Croatia to third place when he was just 20 years old. Having to wear a mask for some games helped him shut down the quarterback, but he really solidified his position as one of the most exciting prospects in the game.

Seven months later, City signed him as the second most expensive defender of all time to add to a defense that Pep Guardiola had deemed responsible for the Blues winning the Treble. As sad as it is for the club to see Aymeric Laporte go, Gvardiol proved invaluable during the match and his potential remains high.

Even more impressive was the signing of Oleksandr Zinchenko for less than £2m in 2016. Aged 19, he had just played in all three of Ukraine’s games at Euro 2016, but was still a signing that was firmly under radar in Pep Guardiola’s first summer at the Etihad.

It took Zinchenko more than 18 months to break into City and even then there were many years when he could have left the club, only to continue to fight for a place in the first team. In his final game of 2022, he came off the bench in the final league game to inspire a 3–2 comeback victory over Aston Villa to give City the title.

A £30m sale to Arsenal meant the Blues got more than 15 times what they paid for him after a six-year spell that included four league titles and a Champions League final. Zinchenko must go down as one of the best signings of the Guardiola era because of the value he brought to the club.

City will struggle to find such a bargain again, but that must be the ambition as they continue to build a title-winning squad for years to come. They will be watching the Euros closely to see if any of its stars have made their case for City to push to sign them.