The transfer window might be closed but Manchester City have managed to secure an acquisition in time for next season as they have reportedly agreed a deal to bring La Liga star Sávio to the club in a few months’ time — but, technically, he’s already on the book at the City Football Group.
For anyone unaware of the City Football Group (CFG) structure, the Abu Dhabi United Group run the football-based holding company which in turn operates 13 different clubs around the world, including Man City, Girona, New York City FC, Troyes AC and Palermo, just to name a few.
All that being said, Sávio, who is currently on loan from the aforementioned French team Troyes, has lit up the Spanish league ever since he joined Girona back in 2022, of which the CFG currently own 47%.
With five goals and seven assists to his name and shining as one of the key players in the club’s remarkable title charge this season, having finished sixth in Spain’s second tier just a short while ago in 21/22 and only just managing promotion through the playoffs, City are now set to bring him to the Etihad.
Since all three clubs are owned by the CFG and the overarching private equity company, very little money is likely to change hands.
While Blues will rightly be excited about the eventual arrival of the 19-year-old Brazilian winger, who claims he had lucrative offers from multiple clubs but refused as he knew “one day [he] would play for City”, football fans elsewhere are wondering if this is all kosher.
As The Athletic‘s Nick Miller shared in a post via X: “A classic bit of multi-club nimble footwork this. Savio was signed by City Football Group’s Troyes – their record signing, in fact – but has never played for them, was loaned immediately to City Football Group’s Girona, & is now being sold to City Football Group’s Manchester City.
One commenter said, “This has to be illegal there’s no way this is possible”, while another particularly sarcastic remark read: “These negotiations must‘ve been incredibly difficult.” Given all three clubs are affiliated, any money exchanged will go back into virtually the same pot.
The fact is, no matter how much you want to question how ‘fair’ moves like this are, it’s considered above board and is by no means the first. Former City fullback Angeliño joined back in 2015 and was immediately loaned out to New York FC and Girona before eventually making just six appearances for his parent club in two years and being ultimately moved on.
Chelsea have been accused of similarly monopolising young talent for many years; Watford and Udinese have all used similar player-swapping methods too alongside the likes of the Red Bull football teams.
Jack Harrison’s case was similar only in reverse; he joined New York through their youth programme and was then officially sold to City in 2018 without playing a single game for them in three seasons after being sent straight to Middlesborough and then successive spells at Leeds United before joining them on a permanent deal.
As Miller went on to add, he wasn’t “even suggesting there’s anything wrong with this per se. Just that this is the reality of being in a multi-club group: the smaller teams are no longer independent entities whose success is the ultimate priority – just vessels through which the ‘parent’ club funnels things”.
However, as many others online have noted, the implications this has on said smaller teams like Troyes could prove to be damning, especially when you take into account they were relegated from Ligue 1 last season and could potentially even slip into the French third division if their form continues.
City might be getting yet another extremely promising attacking squad member when Sávio joins them in the summer — with the deal supposedly set to be complete by the end of this month — but he will remain with Girona for the rest of the season as they look to win the league for the first time in their history.
Meanwhile, Troyes, of whom City are still the majority shareholder, could go down yet again whilst watching their most expensive player ever move on without ever even pulling on the shirt.
Pep Guardiola hints at when Manchester City fans can expect to see their latest arrival
Danny Jones
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has given supporters a rough timeline as to when they can expect to see their new signing, or at least their latest arrival, make his first appearance.
The Blues wrapped up the January transfer window with four major signings: their new attacking number seven, Omar Marmoush (who has already bagged a hattrick on his home debut) promising defensive duo, Abdukodir Khusanov and Brazilian Vitor Reis, as well as their ‘mini-Rodri’, Nico Gonzalez.
However, the club has had another late arrival who was technically signed back at the start of last year but who has spent for the last 12 months or so loaned back to his previous parent club, River Plate in Argentina, waiting to make the move over to the Etihad Stadium – and now he’s here in Manchester.
Speaking on his touchdown in 0161, Pep said Claudio Echeverri won’t be thrown into first-team action straight away but did give a rough estimate as to when City fans could expect him to get involved. You can see him discussing the integration plan in his post-match press conference following the Spurs win.
The mention was only brief but there’s still plenty of reason for Man City fans to be excited by the late January signing.
“Yeah, he [Claudio Echeverri] is going to start to train and mainly will be for the end of the season, maybe the [Club] World Cup and as soon as possible [that] he arrives he can adapt quick for the future.”
As mentioned, the 19-year-old Argentinian attacking midfielder from Resistencia officially put pen to paper with CFG back in January 2024 and was quickly dubbed ‘the next Messi’.
Now, although the football world is often quick to jump the gun with these things and he isn’t the first and certainly won’t be last to be slapped with this premature title, he’s done more to back up these claims since then than he has rubbish them.
Starring at the 2025 Under-20 South American Championships, netting six goals in nine games to finish the tournament as the second highest scorer thanks to notable braces against Brazil and Uruguay as the young Argentine’s finished as runners up.
He also notched 48 senior appearances for River Plate thus far, netting four goals and grabbing eight assists in that time, not to mention having already captained his national team at the 2023 Under 17s World Cup, where he scored another five.
Safe to say there’s plenty of talent to be tapped in this lad.
Once again, Echeverri won’t go straight into the senior set-up for a little while yet, barring a major injury crisis, but he’ll be a more than exciting addition to the City Football Academy and for future first-team lineups for years to come.
Who knows, maybe he’ll be included in an FA Cup matchday squad? Nevertheless, you can expect him to not just come of the bench but hopefully show what he can do at the Club World Cup this summer.
City‘s first fixture as reigning champions of the competition will be against Moroccan side Wydad AC on 18 June 2025.
You can watch Echeverri’s first full interview as a Man City player down below:
The new Man City signing is excited to be finally be part of the club 13 months on from agreeing his contract.
‘Nothing is eternal’: Is Pep Guardiola hinting at the end of Manchester City’s supremacy?
Danny Jones
Pep Guardiola looks to have suggested that more than a decade of Manchester City’s supremacy and Premier League dominance at the very least might be coming to an end.
Speaking in his post-match press interviews after City were knocked out of the Champions League by serial European Cup winners Real Madrid, Guardiola cut a somewhat more deflated figure than usual following the 3-1 defeat.
A Kylian Mbappe hattrick which was closed out within an hour of play was enough to stretch the aggregate score to 6-3 over the two legs and Madrid doubling their lead across the tie proved yet again why, not unlike City domestically over the last decade, they’re the kings of the continental competition.
In contrast, however, Pep seemed to accept the loss much more easily than perhaps we’ve seen in the past and rather than appearing familiarly frustrated or defiant in the press conference; instead, he seemed rather reflective, responding to one reporter: “Nothing is eternal”.
🗣️ "Nothing is eternal" – Pep Guardiola.
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Insisting that they have to decide whether a significant rebuild is needed to keep competing at the very top level consistently as they have done since the 54-year-old arrived back in 2016, he argued that it is only with that they’ll be able to determine what comes next.
As for the result itself, he made no bones about Carlo Ancelotti’s side having “deserved it”, stating simply that “the best team won” and that fans and players alike have to “accept the reality: they were better.”
Having been a familiar foe for Pep long before he arrived in Manchester, both at Barcelona and Bayern Munich – not to mention City having faced Los Blancos a dozen times before Tuesday night since 2012 – there have been less surprising outcomes for supporters to come to terms with.
“With time, the club and everyone is going to accept what it is but for now we have 30/40 games for the Premier League next season to try and be here [in the Champions League] and to improve. Nothing is eternal”, said the Catalan coaching genius.
On the other hand, he also went on to add that it was merely a reflection on the night itself and not what his team have achieved in recent years.
He went on to remark that “when we were playing outstanding it hurt more” to be knocked out of the UCL when he felt they deserved to stay in it, but still insisted: “We have been unbelievable and we have to try step by step to get better from today.” Tonight just wasn’t the night.
Who knows? Perhaps it was just some more melodrama from a manager with an undeniable flare for pageantry and playing into/in the face of narratives when he doesn’t come out on top – which hasn’t happened all that often until their dip in form this season.
Plus, there’s certainly still plenty for him and the fans to be positive about; not only has the arrival of their ‘Egyptian Prince’ and the media’s Mo Salah successor, Omar Marmoush, got plenty of people excited – especially after that first-half hattrick against Newcastle – but so too have the other January signings.
In fact, for all of his downplaying in this particular presser (which you can hear in full HERE), it felt like there were only upsides after their victory over Newcastle, even going so far as to dub new signing Nico Gonzalez a ‘mini-Rodri‘.
You can watch the highlights from the game down below:
Pep is right, nothing is eternal – but sometimes you just come up against talents like Mbappe and there’s very little anyone can do about it.
Danny Jones -
6th February 2024 
