Where Man City's 'inflated' transfer money ended up
An analysis of clubs that received major transfer fees from Manchester City between 2009 and 2018 shows the money rarely translated into lasting success, while some indirect beneficiaries saw a bigger boost.
Manchester City's transfer spending during the period the club was later accused of breaching financial regulations reshaped fortunes across football, though not always for the better for those who received the cash.
Sellers who struggled afterwards
Wolfsburg used proceeds from Kevin De Bruyne's 2016 sale to sign Julian Draxler and veteran defender Dante, yet dropped from second to eighth in the Bundesliga and narrowly avoided relegation over the following two seasons.
Monaco fared similarly after selling Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva in 2017. Their direct replacements, Terence Kongolo and Keita Balde, did not work out, and the club went from winning Ligue 1 and reaching the Champions League semi-finals to nearly being relegated within two years.
Arsenal, who sold the most players to City of any club between 2009 and 2018, failed to mount a serious Premier League title challenge in that period.
Indirect winners and losers
In Portugal, City paid comparable sums to Benfica and Porto but nothing to Sporting, who did not win a league title between 2009 and 2018.
Meanwhile, smaller English clubs benefited from sell-on clauses. Queens Park Rangers earned roughly £9m from Raheem Sterling's 2015 move from Liverpool to City, while Barnsley received about £7m from John Stones' 2016 transfer from Everton to City. Despite the windfalls, neither club has thrived since — QPR remain outside the Premier League, and Barnsley dropped to League One within two seasons of the payment.
