Manager Pep Guardiola has made no secret about his desire to, if possible, trim down the size of Manchester City’s squad. He has since the end of last season spoken about the difficulties of having such a large team, particularly in relation to leaving players out of match day squads. Additionally, the current size of the squad would necessitate leaving multiple players out of City’s registered Champions League squad until at least the knock-out stage. With ten days remaining in the transfer window, and the rumour mill running wild with speculation, how many players might need to leave the club, and who might they be?
Pep Guardiola: "If they [players] stay, it's fine but they know [the size of #ManCity's squad]. We spoke about that. The reality is that. To stay, for me it's fine. It's not ideal, but it's my job, I do it. But if they want to play regularly, maybe it's not going to happen..."
— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) August 15, 2025
Current squad size
According to City’s website, the squad currently consists of 29 players (excluding the four who have left the club on loan). Of these 29, ten qualify as home-grown. For the Champions League, 25 players can be registered total, with 8 of these needing to be home-grown in the same nation as the club. So for City to register a full 25 man squad without leaving anybody out, they would need to off-load four players, but no more than two home-grown ones.
Who might leave?
The most discussed exit rumours with regards to City in recent weeks have been Savinho and Ederson, but given that it is clear that should either of these leave, replacements would be brought in, these two do not actually have any baring on this discussion. The other recent rumour is that of Manuel Akanji, who has been linked with a move to Galatasaray and who reportedly has interest from elsewhere as well. Given that City have six first team centre-backs, with Akanji being the only non-home-grown one that they would consider selling, this exit would make a lot of sense. Furthermore, the 29-man squad includes Kalvin Phillips, who is entirely out of favour at the club, and academy product Joshua Wilson-Esbrand, who has never really been near the first team. Both of these will presumably be on their way out in one way or another, which adds two more exits, although it also takes up both available home-grown departures. The final two players who seem likely to leave are Stefan Ortega, who has been displaced as 2nd choice keeper by the re-signed James Trafford, and İlkay Gündoğan, who is rumoured to have interest from Galatasaray. If all five of those players left, City would have 24 players left in their squad, meaning Guardiola’s only selection headaches across the season would be who starts and who is on the bench.
Akanji weighing up Man City future; Galatasaray not the only club interested https://t.co/GC7nYu5QIl
— Jack Gaughan (@Jack_Gaughan) August 21, 2025
Conclusion
With deadline day fast approaching, City will be hoping to offload much of their deadwood in the coming days in order to keep the squad happy. All of the possible exits are very feasible for the club to arrange so long as interest appears from somewhere. The Sky Blues could be in for a busy last few days of the transfer window as they look to round out the edges of their squad ahead of their attempt to reclaim their Premier League title.
