The transfer window is closed for another summer after the Premier League once again broke its record spend, surpassing the £1billion mark for the first time in its history to reach a grand total of £1.165million spent by top flight clubs over the transfer window period.
Manchester City were the biggest spenders this summer as Pep Guardiola spent a massive £174.05m on new recruits - including the likes of £47.5million John Stones from Everton, £37million Leroy Sane, who joined from Schalke, and £15.3 million on Celta Vigo man Nolito.
Claudio Bravo (who replaced the loaned out Joe Hart) Ilkay Gundogan, Marlos Moreno and Gabriel Jesus were also amongst those who joined the new revolution at the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City seek to regain their Premier League title from Leicester City and finally find success in Europe.
City’s signings certainly make them a force to be reckoned with this season, but many of those brought in are young and may havd a bigger part in the club's future than they will do this season. While the Sky Blues remain favourites for the title, we can’t help but think they missed out on some serious business this summer in order to ensure the Premier League title would once again be theirs.
But while Man City had a good transfer window, it wasn't as good as 7 Of The Best! We’ve teamed up with 7OTB to bring you a footballing treat for the season. It’s free to play and the best team each week wins £1,500, as well as monthly prize of £4,000 for the best individual. Want to win bigger? Nab yourself a whopping £500k if you get all seven of your selections correct for seven consecutive weeks.
How do you play? All you need to do is pick seven teams each week, one being your banker, five being teams you expect to win and one you believe will draw.
So with the theme of seven in mind, here are seven players Guardiola should've signed this summer...
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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
With Wilfried Bony now out of the picture and new man Gabriel Jesus not arriving until January, City still lack in attacking options for behind or alongside Sergio Aguero, and while Kelechi Iheanacho is the prodigal son, he is certainly a player for the future.
Aubameyang will have filled that gap and given Guardiola's men an even more potent attacking force.
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Aymeric Laporte
City’s downfall over the past two seasons has mostly been due to haphazard and calamitous defending.
Having rid of Martin Demechelis and Elaquim Mangala, Guardiola really needed to bring in two more centre backs to cover for the departures and the injury prone Vincent Kompany.
Laporte would have been a fantastic signing, but the young Frenchman’s asking price was extremely steep.
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Paul Pogba
With Guardiola unlikely to play Yaya Toure, signing a colossal box-to-box midfielder would have seemed the straight forward option for the Spaniard.
And who better than Paul Pogba? Skilful, energetic and with a penchant for the spectacular, City could now rue the mistake when they face him in next weeks Manchester Derby.
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Thiago Alcantara
Everyone thought Thiago would follow Guardiola for the second time in his career to join City this summer, but the move was just not to be as the Spanish playmaker opted to stay at Bayern instead.
Thiago would have fitted right into City’s midfield alongside David Silva and Nolito to make a Spanish midfield trio that the would be the envy of world football.
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Inaki Williams
New signings Marlos Moreno and Nolito are both capable of playing out wide, but the former is unproven and young and the latter is more of a central playmaker.
Pep Guardiola seems insistent on playing Jesus Navas who is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Williams could have been the wide-man City craved to play on the opposing flank to Raheem Sterling.
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Youri Tielemans
Another highly-rated young talent, the young Belgian is a box-to-box midfielder capable of breaking up play and scoring a few goals two, 15 in last two seasons combined in fact.
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Toni Kroos
Real Madrid have plenty of competition for places in the middle of their park with the likes of Luca Modric, James Rodriguez, Isco and Casemiro all fighting it out to make the starting XI, but Kroos opted to stay at the Bernabeu and prove his worth under manager Zinedine Zidane.
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