Part of the reason for that is their resources. They can research and scout players more thoroughly than most other clubs, and then they can pay transfer fees and wages that few else can match.
On top of that, they can also convince just about anyone in world football to join given how consistently they challenge for and win the biggest trophies.
But another reason they are usually so successful with their recruitment is the environment that new players arrive into. When everything else is so stable, and one player just needs to slot into a fully functional team led by one of the greatest managers of all time, it tends to be easier to succeed there than it is elsewhere.
This summer, though, things aren’t quite as they usually are at the Etihad Stadium. Pep Guardiola has just endured the worst league season of his career, while City have just finished outside the Premier League’s top two and entirely trophyless for the first time in eight years.
They have also just lost one of their best ever players and a genuine Premier League legend, with Kevin De Bruyne leaving the club after his contract ran out. That leaves a huge hole in their midfield and some colossal boots to be filled.
Injuries meant De Bruyne started only 34 of a possible 78 (43.6%) Premier League games across his final two seasons at the Etihad, so City have done plenty of preparing on the field for his departure.
But while they have mountains of attacking talent in their squad, they don’t have anyone quite like De Bruyne. There is no direct replacement for a player like him, but there may be some hope that with the signing of Tijjani Reijnders from Milan for a reported £46.3 million, they can make some headway in replacing one aspect of the Belgian’s game.
That is because of Reijnders’ ability to break lines with his passes in attacking areas of the pitch – something at which De Bruyne is one of the best in Premier League history.
Reijnders, 26, broke the opposition’s defensive line with a pass more times (47) than any other player in Serie A this season. He also ranked seventh for the number of times he broke the opposition’s midfield line (147)
He broke two lines of opposition pressure with a single pass 26 times – the third most in the Italian top flight of non-defenders – and even broke three lines on three occasions, which was also the third most in the league.
Clearly, he has an eye for a defence-splitting pass, but when he breaks the opposition’s defensive line, his passes don’t generally lead directly to a chance; of his 229 line-breaking passes over the course of 2024-25, only 10 directly created a chance for a teammate (4.4%).
As the below graphic shows, his line-breaking passes tended to go from in to out – from a central position out towards the wings rather than towards goal. Perhaps that would change with the runs of a striker like Erling Haaland to target at City, though.
Reijnders also gets on the end of balls into the box himself. He scored 10 league goals this season, which is by far the best return of his career, and a tally that only one other central midfielder in Serie A could top. That player was Scott McTominay, and he only overtook Reijnders with a scoring spree of five goals in three games in April as he fired Napoli to the title.
Reijnders is similar to McTominay in how he crashes the box with runs from deep, while he is also happy to make runs beyond the striker in behind the opposition. The two below stills show him in Serie A action this season as the highest Milan player, making a run in behind from which he went on to score
