Today's Manchester City has become more synonymous with publishing fortunes to new players – but that was not always the case.
In fact, in the past times, the ruling Premier League champions have made incredibly good use of the free transfer market. It was not that long ago that the Bosman -Deals were considerably more common in football, and City used the method to make their part of Steraan acquisitions.
The side of Pep Guardiola is by no means against a free arrival that has brought current members such as Ilkay Gundogan and Stefan Ortega free of charge. But the days that such austerity were needed to fill a team in the Etihad Stadium.
However, that does not mean that those free arrivals in quality were missing. And Mirror Sport has demolished some of the best milling to connect the ranks of the club over the years, from Champions League winners to rival recruits from Old Trafford.
Man Utd Turncoat Trio
For a club that was routinely mocked as the “noisy neighbors” of Manchester United, the Luring Star names from Old Trafford were considered something of a coup for the city. Even if those specific talents were somewhat over the hedge, as was the case for Peter Schmeichel, Andy Cole and Owen Hargreaves.
It was three years after lifting the Treble in Old Trafford that Schmeichel made the controversial move to City for a single season for his retirement. And his decision was missing an iconic tunnel moment when former teammate Gary Neville rejected the handshake of a familiar face when they met before the derby.
Cole-Die had been so crucial in 1999 for United who wrote history Voltooed his own free transfer to the city until 2005. Fulham wanted to keep the rush desperate after a successful stay of a year in Craven Cottage, but he returned instead To the northwest and scored 10 times in 23 trips for the Sky Blues before he came to Portsmouth for £ 500,000.
Hargreaves did not achieve that much for United – albeit winning the Premier League and Champions League – but has been described as a traitor by many under the Old Trafford Faithful. His switch from 2011 to City was considered a scandalous step given that Sir Alex Ferguson had kept him in the books for four years despite his devastating injury problems, which only continued at Etihad.
Didi Hamann
Didi Hamann's Transfer Saga from 2006 was a bizarre thing in the sense that he had reluctantly agreed to accompany Bolton with a free when his Liverpool contract expired. The German was an important part of the Reds team that had returned from the edge to beat AC Milan to the Champions League a year earlier and did not want to leave Anfield.
But a month after he shaken hands to join Wanderers, he took himself from the deal and moved to the city instead. The latter paid a compensation costs of £ 400,000, although former Bolton chairman Phil Gartside Hamann said that he was never officially their player.
“What you never realized was that we never signed the newspapers and just put them in the drawer,” he said during a Talksport -appearing from 2013 alongside the retired midfielder.
“The next thing we know, you came by and told us that you got this chance to go to Manchester City – so we actually sold you without really signing you; did you know? We have £ 400,000 from Manchester City for one Player we have never really signed – and that is the truth. “
What is even more bizarre is the fact that Gartside was wrong because of all accounts, with a Premier League study that was registered as Bolton player on July 1, 2006.
The double FA Cup winner and the second place of World Cup spent three years with City, but never hit the same heights as his top career on the road.
Arsenal icons
When the aforementioned Schmeichel hung up his boots in 2003, City focused on another Premier League icon in David Seaman. But it turned out that Arsenal was right to give their steadfast release after 564 performances, given that he only lasted six months in Manchester before he retired due to injury.
Their decision to invest in Patrick Vieira six years later went a little better and benefited after Jose Mourinho had taken the player off in January 2010 from Inter's Squad. Went 18 months ago to England and signed his career by winning the FA Cup for a fifth and last time.
Although not of the same caliber as that Arsenal duo, Bacary Sagna made the leap to the city directly from the Emirates in 2014 on a free. Despite the Abu Dhabi ownership of the city that was well on the road by the time Sagna was connected, a competition crown in 2016 was the only trophy he held on their books in three years.
Geovanni
To their honor, City saw something in Geovanni that other Premier League parties would not notice it until it was too late. Before his days blinding in a cult-like Hull City attack, the Brazilian only had a number of impressive patches for one season in Manchester.
The diminutive attacking midfielder-cum-wing player had an impressive resume before he found his way to England. He spent a short time on the books with Barcelona and Benfica before City signed him on a free, after a process rejected by Portsmouth.
But despite a promising start for the city, scoring in early games against Man United and West Ham, he was released after a single season. However, the loss of the city turned out to be Hull's win, and the fantasy football icon played a crucial role that the Tigers held up in the 2008/09 season before they left when they were banned the following year.
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