'£180m only scratches the surface of the rebuilding job Guardiola faces'
Has Pep Guardiola applied a temporary fix to broken Manchester City?
Their disappointing season was brought into sharp relief once more by the second-half collapse in that 5-1 defeat at Arsenal, following the pattern of the 4-2 loss away to Paris St-Germain in the Champions League, where they also conceded four goals in the second half.
Guardiola's side, who made history last season by winning a fourth successive title, have looked ageing, flawed, frail and a pale shadow of their former all-conquering selves, with opponents preying on their vulnerability.
The £50m capture of Porto's powerful 23-year-old midfield man Nico Gonzalez will add strength to an area robbed of Rodri's world class this season, with problems exacerbated by Kevin de Bruyne (33) and the 30-year-olds Mateo Kovacic and Bernardo Silva all starting to shows signs of miles on the clock.
Guardiola finally has his replacement for much-missed Argentina forward Julian Alvarez with the signing of 25-year-old Egypt forward Omar Marmoush from Eintracht Frankfurt for a deal that could eventually be worth £63m.
He has also bought two defenders for the future with a £33.6m deal for 20-year-old Abdukodir Khusanov from Lens, along with teenager Vitor Reis from Palmeiras, who cost £29.6m.
This is an outlay of close to £180m but still only scratches the surface of the rebuilding job Guardiola faces.
It remains to be seen if any of the quartet make a serious difference to the fading champions.
These seem like just the first bricks in the rebuild, with the bigger work coming in the summer.
Read all of Phil's deadline day verdict