Champions League squads, submitted last night, announced by UEFA – containing surprise addition of John Stones with the number 24 shirt.
Eliaquim Mangala, Samir Nasri, Wilfried Bony missing from squad, as is injured captain Vincent Kompany
City’s season starts on Saturday at home to David Moyes’ Sunderland
Manchester City have announced the signing of Everton defender John Stones in a deal believed to be worth £47.5m.
He will become the second most expensive defender ever after David Luiz who moved from Chelsea to Paris St Germain in 2014 for a fee of £50m.
We are delighted to announce the signing of John Stones https://t.co/vLYKEPByQZ #WelcomeJohn pic.twitter.com/Qs4Ab0UN45
— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 9, 2016
UEFA’s own website tipped off fans about the deal this morning when they published the squad lists for the UEFA Champions League play-off rounds.
Stones appeared to have been handed the number 24 shirt on a list that had to have been submitted to UEFA last night to qualify for the forthcoming games against Steaua Bucharest – away on August 16 with the home leg on August 24.
Of interest to other City watchers was the fact that Eliaquim Mangala, Samir Nasri and Wilfried Bony were excluded from the list while captain Vincent Kompany was never going to be fit enough to return for either leg of the play-off.
City manager Pep Guardiola had decisions to make anyway as UEFA’s strict limits on the number of foreign players in a 25 man squad limit the selection to 17, with four club trained players and four association trained players.
The association trained player slots are taken up by Joe Hart, Gael Clichy, Raheem Sterling, and Fabian Delph leaving Stones to take up one of the 17 ‘foreign’ player slots.
Guardiola may have to make more changes to the squad for the group stage proper – if City beat Steaua – to accomodate Kompany as Kelechi Iheanacho won’t be considered a club-trained player until January.
Manchester City defensive crisis abates
The main bulk of Pep Guardiola’s summer signing have been attacking ones, with the deal for Stones coming belatedly on the eve of the season.
With Martin Demichelis released, Vincent Kompany and Nicolas Otamendi injured, and Mangala seemingly not in Guardiola’s plans, City have had to make do with a makeshift defence for much of their interrupted pre-season.
Many of their senior players who could have filled in, such as Bacary Sagna, enjoyed an extended break following Euro 2016.
The 3-2 defeat to Arsenal in Gothenburg on Sunday saw an unlikely pairing of Aleksandar Kolarov and Fernando playing as auxiliary centre backs.
Playing for Belgium in Euro 2016 meant that Jason Denayer sat unused on the sidelines having had a reduced pre-season.
What will be worrying for Denayer is the fact that youngster Tosin Adarabioyo had more game time than he did earlier in pre-season and was tipped as one for the first team in the future by Guardiola.