€1 billion in 18 months: Enzo Fernandez deal means Enzo Maresca has no excuses in first Man City season

No amount of transfer outlay can make Enzo Maresca's Manchester City task straightforward. Following greats is hard, even for very talented coaches.

Some of the pre-season conversation saw the likes of Unai Emery and David Moyes mentioned alongside Maresca. They succeeded Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson at Arsenal and Manchester United respectively and never really had a chance. How on earth can Maresca hope to follow Pep Guardiola successfully?

Emery and Moyes will be mentioned again after any moments of turbulence at the Etihad Stadium this season. Their cautionary tales were cited after Arsenal swept past City 3-0 in the Community Shield. There was a gulf, an unbridgeable chasm. 

Of course, part of that was overreaction after a glorified friendly. The narrative of Arsenal being a stable and assured force while half of the Premier League is in flux also appeals to purists' instincts. Other teams are spending hundreds of millions of pounds and sacking managers, just to try to catch up with a team that charted a steady course, trusted the process and finally won the league.

MORE: Enzo Fernandez to Man City: Why club played long game to sign Chelsea star for record-equalling £125 million 

On the evidence of the first two weekends of the season – a perilously small sample size – City are the team most likely to dethrone Mikel Arteta's men. As they took Crystal Palace apart last Friday, they were a contradiction of familiarity and change. Maresca was on the backroom staff when Guardiola's side won the treble in 2022/23, but only Ruben Dias, Phil Foden and Erling Haaland remain from that team. The sight of Haaland smirking as he plunders goals in late summer is one of comforting familiarity, but don't let that persuade you City are the same. They're not.

Bernardo Silva, John Stones, Rodri, Nathan Ake and Jack Grealish all started the 2023 Champions League final against Inter Milan at the Ataturk Stadium. They all left during this window, a year on from fellow Istanbul starters Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne, Ederson and Manuel Akanji departing.

This goes a long way to explaining City's vast outlay over the past 18 months. Since January 2025, they have spent over $1billion on new players. Considerable funds have also come in — $431.6m this summer alone. Opposition fans and pundits have expressed plenty of frustration that all of this activity has gone on while the wait for a verdict in the Premier League's so-called 115 charges case against City goes on interminably.

As Guardiola's penultimate season collapsed in the face of an injury and confidence crisis that was captured in such gripping fashion in the recently released Amazon documentary "A Beautiful Obsession", City sprang into action. Their summer windows in 2024 and 2025 did not hit the mark. City have won one Champions League knockout tie since the 2023 final.

Outgoing sporting director Txiki Begiristain and his successor Hugo Viana worked at a furious pace, but there were more misses than hits. Of the 2025 signings, Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Tijjani Reijnders and James Trafford were all moved on during this window, albeit for handsome fees. Only the Rayan Cherki and Abdukodir Khusanov of the players signed last year can be considered unqualified successes.

Marc Guehi and Antoine Semenyo were smart pieces of January 2026 business who helped take the title race against Arsenal to the final week. Semenyo also netted a brilliant winning goal against Chelsea in the FA Cup final

After plenty of their 2025 punts didn't come off, Viana and City have predominantly shopped for top-end talent this summer. Elliot Anderson became their record signing when he joined for £116m from Nottingham Forest, while Ayyoub Bouaddi arrived as one of the most highly regarded teenagers in Europe. Iliman Ndiaye was a late, opportunistic move, but the skilful Senegal attacker will be a better fit than Marmoush and is a notable upgrade.

These signings in support of Haaland and fast-developing talents such as Cherki, Jeremy Doku, Josko Gvardiol and Nico O'Reilly mean Maresca has an enviable squad at his disposal, along with impressive depth at centre-back.

It's a lot of change, and there will be teething problems. These aren't just transfer fees; these are human beings with new jobs and a new boss, moving families to a new city or country. Rough and smooth are inevitable.

But City's final signing of the window, which equals the British transfer record, is one that truly changes the feel.

Introducing our new Argentinian Blue 🇦🇷🩵 pic.twitter.com/nEHQ1oM855

Enzo Fernandez was Maresca's man, but getting him through the door went right up to the deadline because it was never likely to be easy.

Relations between City and Chelsea had become strained after the Italian left Stamford Bridge in the middle of last season and bided his time to take over from Guardiola. Then consider Fernandez's wider reputation due to his antics as Argentina'sWorld Cup provocateur. More seriously, there was the incident when he streamed himself singing a racially offensive song on the national team bus after the 2024 Copa America final.

But Maresca worked with Fernandez in the 18 months after that flashpoint and had no doubt he was the key piece to temper City's loss of hard-bitten winners. It would have been easier not to get involved, to allow the excuse of change being gradual and hard, but Viana and the board backed their manager.

Maresca has the player he wanted, who completes a $435.7m midfield refit. He knows Fernandez changes expectations, and he chose to demand those high stakes. Enzo and Anderson must lay the platform for Cherki, Semenyo, Ndiaye, Phil Foden, and Haaland to shine.

That's a group of players that must challenge strongly for the grandest prizes. No top-four as something to build on. An Arsenal procession or an early Champions League exit cannot be explained away with talk of transition. Nor would Maresca's bosses attempt to do so.

"This machine is built to win," said City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak on the aforementioned Amazon doc. "It doesn't work if we don't win."