Manchester City bought parallel imports for 60 million! Known as Little Rodri, he joined for half a year and had no effect

At the beginning of this year, after Manchester City experienced two more "big purchases" during the window period, coach Guardiola officially became the head coach with the highest net transfer expenditure in football history, with a total of more than 2 billion pounds. In the past nine seasons, he has led the team to win 18 important trophies, and his record is brilliant, so he naturally has the confidence to "burn money". However, many of the stars who joined at high prices and had huge expectations failed to live up to their worth in the end. The most typical example is Phillips. Nowadays, another "Blue Moon" midfielder in Manchester City is facing this problem. He is Nico Gonzalez, who joined the team in the winter window.

In the summer of 2022, when Calvin Phillips, who was born in the Leeds United youth training, switched to Manchester City for 45 million pounds, he was at the peak of his career: he played 234 games for Leeds United and shined under Bielsa; he started all 7 games in the European Cup and became the main force in England. But as of today, more than three years later, he has only played 32 times on behalf of Manchester City, only 6 of which were starts, with a total playing time of 921 minutes.

In order to save Phillips' career, he was loaned to West Ham and Ipswich, but he had no sense of presence. This summer, this "forgotten star" officially returned to the team. He came on as a substitute in the 84th minute against Huddersfield in the League Cup. It was the first time in 690 days that he wore the Blue Moon jersey. After that, he couldn't even make the squad, and he was obviously no longer in Guardiola's plans.

Since Guardiola took office, Manchester City has introduced as many as 17 new players worth 45 million+ in the transfer market, with mixed success and failure. Phillips has played the least of them, but there's another youngster on the roster who could follow in his footsteps. In this winter window, Manchester City spent more than the other 19 Premier League clubs combined, signing 23-year-old Nico Gonzalez from Porto at the buzzer on the deadline day, worth 60 million.

This Spanish midfielder produced by La Masia and called "Mini Rodri" by Guardiola himself seems to have become a natural substitute for Rodri when he is injured. However, the plot did not go according to the script:

-Only 9 starts in the Premier League last season, 16 starts in all competitions, 10 times as a substitute and 9 times in the stands;

-The only goal was the icing on the cake against Bournemouth in May;

-At Brentford on Sunday, Ronaldo He came on as a substitute after Delhi was injured;

-This summer, Dutch international Reijnders came to vote, and Kovacic returned from injury, and his playing order may continue to decline;

-In the round before the international match, he kicked Dell in the face in stoppage time against Monaco, and the 3 points he received became 1 point, making headlines.

Richards praised him in "Match of the Day" as a "ball player priceless", but similar praise was also given to Phillips back then. Once he loses the trust of the coach, no matter how talented he is, he may be "hidden". If Rodri is absent for a long time, will Guardiola hand over the defensive midfielder position to Nico in the next home game against Everton? The answer is about to be revealed - everyone hopes that this will not be the beginning of another "high-priced midfield evaporation".