Coach Pep Guardiola has never been a talkative person, but his tone after Manchester City's heavy defeat to the tiny team Bodo/Glimt in the Champions League has a color that is almost apocalyptic.
Although emphasizing Man City's lack of 11 key players, and giving many compliments to the opponent, the Spanish strategist still frankly pointed out the alarming reality of the team.
Since the beginning of the year, everything seems to be turning our backs on us. We have to quickly change the situation. The feeling right now is that anything that may be wrong is wrong" - the Spanish captain said.
In the context of Man City falling into a rare state of disorientation, good news comes from the fact that Marc Guehi has just arrived at Etihad, which is expected to bring stability to The Citizens' struggling defense.
Marc Guehi once used the phrase "complete dominance" to describe Man City for the past decade. However, comprehensive disaster is probably the most realistic expression for the start of 2026 for the blue team.
Since the beginning of January, City has lost 2 and drawn 3 in 7 matches in all competitions, with 2 rare victories coming only from domestic cup tournaments.
The lackluster defeat against Manchester United disappointed fans, but things were much worse in northern Norway. At Aspmyra, Guardiola's team was completely convincingly defeated 3-1 by Bodo/Glimt.
More notably, City's opponent is a small team, and has not won any of the previous 6 matches in this tournament until Man City appeared.
Bodo/Glimt comes from a town with a population even smaller than the capacity of the Etihad stadium. The total value of their squad, according to Transfermarkt, is only equivalent to one-quarter of the transfer value of Erling Haaland alone.
The 10 most expensive players in the history of the Norwegian team combined only have a total value of 23.5 million pounds. Meanwhile, Man City spent up to 85 million pounds in the January transfer window alone. Further, in the last three transfer windows, Guardiola's team has spent a total of 445 million pounds on strengthening the force.
Despite the huge financial gap between Man City and Bodo/Glimt, as well as the amount of money that the Etihad Stadium team has spent on force reconstruction in recent times, the deal to recruit Guehi for a fee of 20 million pounds is still considered a rare bargain in the current market.
In theory, Man City can completely wait until June to sign a free contract with the English center-back, when his contract with Crystal Palace expires. However, the club's leadership acted decisively 5 months earlier - a wise move that helped them surpass a series of competitors.
Among them is Bayern Munich, a team that once asked both Harry Kane and Michael Olise to directly contact to persuade Guehi, alongside Liverpool. In fact, in the summer of last year, The Kop approached Guehi's signature to the point that this player even underwent medical examinations at a private hospital. However, the deal unexpectedly collapsed after Crystal Palace canceled the agreement at the request of coach Oliver Glasner.
Therefore, the fee of 20 million pounds for one of the most sought-after center-backs in the Premier League - if not all of Europe - is considered an extremely successful contract for Man City.
To compare, Man City once spent about 30 million pounds for each Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis deal at the same time last year. While Khusanov is likely to pair up with Guehi in the match against Wolves this weekend, Reis has only made three appearances for Man City and is playing on loan at Girona.
