Man City set £80m benchmark after avoiding Julian Alvarez transfer repeat

Savinho has become the latest Manchester City player to sign a new contract after the transfer window has closed

For the second time in a month, Manchester City have sorted a new contract for a player they were open to selling in the summer transfer window.

You could say it was three if you are counting discussions with Chelsea over Nico O'Reilly, although they were never as detailed as the conversations over Rico Lewis and Savinho. Lewis has sorted his future after a move to Nottingham Forest looked to be on the cards, while Tottenham came in for Savinho.

The Brazilian came down with an untimely injury as soon as Tottenham's interest was made public, leaving some sceptical Blues to worry that he would miraculously recover from any problem if Spurs were to complete the signing before they played at the Etihad in August.

They did not, and before the end of the window City had closed the door on any Savinho exit. They had been open to business for a fee as high as £80m, before coming to the conclusion that they wanted to keep him.

Instead of moving clubs, Savinho's reward for staying, and for a promising first year of English football, is a better contract that runs until at least 2031. That also protects City should their be any more subsequent interest in their asset next summer, just as it does for them with Lewis.

In many ways, selling Savinho would have been straight out of the transfer playbook that has been so successful for City for so many years. In part by not doing it, they missed out on the sort of landmark sale that normally brings their net spend crashing down.

However, there has been increasing scrutiny as players that have left have bucked the trend of their predecessors and started to thrive. Cole Palmer was a painful one in 2023 even if his Chelsea level far surpassed what he had shown in the last 18 months at the Etihad, and then last summer the record sale of Julian Alvarez felt like it left City short in attack as Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden struggled while the Argentine relished being the main man at Atletico.

Savinho, at just 21, has the potential to explode and make any team regret selling him. He was valued by the CIES Transfer Observatory at £87m in May even if his first season in the Premier League showed he is far from the finished article. Guardiola has repeatedly spoken about the improvements that will come naturally to the youngster, and now City get a chance to reap the rewards.

Savinho, like Lewis, gets the chance to try that with the acknowledgement and security of an improved contract. And should City be open to any interest in any upcoming transfer windows, those contracts will ensure that clubs will not be able to lowball the Blues in any negotiations.

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