Manchester City have had to deal with numerous injury issues throughout the 2024/25 season.
Some of their more recent injury and fitness problems have played a big part in seeing City lose their four previous matches across all competitions.
In fact, after seeing his side lose their fourth game on the bounce against Brighton & Hove Albion, Pep Guardiola admitted City needed the November international break to come around when it did so his players trying to get back to full fitness could have the time to do so.
With the season now set to resume at the weekend, City have also taken a step closer to being able to potentially ease their injury woes by signing new players in the January transfer window.
On that particular subject, a pundit has shed some light on what sort of conundrum the Manchester club could be facing about it.
- Man City injury list 2024/25: Latest updates and potential return dates for sidelined stars
Steve Nicol questions City’s potential January transfer plans
In a recent ESPN FC video, Steve Nicol was asked if he thinks the current City squad has what it takes to catch up to Liverpool and win another Premier League trophy.
This then led to the former right-back sharing this verdict on the matter including the prospect of City strengthening their squad in the upcoming January transfer window.
He said: “The issue is fitness. If everybody’s fit then it certainly doesn’t look as strong as it had previously but you wouldn’t back against it putting a run together.
“But the key is getting players fit. I think it’s pretty much staring us in the face and I think in terms of the January window are City really going to look at this as a short-term or a long-term thing?
“Because if they want to go and spend money they have on a short-term fix to try and win the Premier League then it completely changes what they’re going to do or or how they’ve been set out previously.
“And really having won six Premier Leagues of the last seven are you really going to jeopardise your long-term strategies for a quick fix to try and win the Premier League again? I don’t see that happening.
“Listen for me it’s 100% can they get everybody back fit and if they do that then they’re capable of mounting a challenge.
“If they don’t then clearly as we’ve seen they’re they’re going to struggle to to certainly meet the standards of previous Man City teams who have won six out the last seven Premier Leagues.”
What has been said about City’s January transfer plans?
Back in September, after Rodri suffered a season-ending injury against Arsenal, Guardiola discussed City signing a midfielder in January and whether that could be on their agenda once the winter window opens, saying this on the matter.
He said: “We will see. We talked today with Txiki, we will see what’s going on. We don’t have to decide tomorrow, right? We have time to see the potential problems we will have and after we will see.”
After that, it was reported that City could sign a Julian Alvarez replacement in January as the Argentine’s summer exit left the Blues with just one striker in their squad.
With Nicol now questioning whether City’s injury issues could force them into making changes in January or whether they’d be better off sticking with the players they currently have and hoping they avoid more fitness problems; this highlights what sort of conversations are likely to be had behind the scenes at the club in the lead up to the winter window.
