Manuel Pellegrini will land himself a selection headache if City’s £27million offer for Wilfried Bony is successful.
The Ivory Coast striker is keen to sign for the Blues, with Champions League football a main attraction.
But if he does arrive in this transfer window it will mean Pellegrini has a tough choice to make when it comes to submitting a revised squad to Uefa on February 3.
Bony’s arrival will mean City have 17 foreign players in their squad, and with Uefa’s financial fair play rap restricting them to 16, it means someone will get the push.
It was a problem that Pellegrini initially faced in the summer, when he had 18 foreign stars – and solved the problem by shipping out Alvaro Negredo and Javi Garcia.
As it stands, City’s 21-man squad is full – they have the maximum 16 foreign stars, the maximum four association-trained players – Joe Hart, Gael Clichy, James Milner and Frank Lampard – and one home-grown player, Dedryck Boyata.
Negredo and Garcia had not convinced Pellegrini he needed them, and the prospect of them bringing in £37million in transfer fees was a big factor.
This time, it is less obvious where the axe will fall, and has led to speculation that a senior first teamer may yet be sold in this window, with some fingers pointing at Stevan Jovetic.
Pellegrini has started to run out of patience with the Montenegrin’s injury record, and with Bony rarely missing games, the man who joined City for £22million in 2013 could be the fall guy on a permanent basis.
It is also likely that Pellegrini feels he could get by in the Champions League with three strikers, as it has become obvious that playing a lone man up front is his best tactic in Europe.
Looking through the squad, it is hard to see where he could trim.
He could bank on Joe Hart’s impeccable injury and suspension record and drop his deputy Willy Caballero, while promoting 20-year-old Ian Lawlor from the elite development squad.
Or he could consider that having Pablo Zabaleta at right back, with Dedryck Boyata – who is the only home-grown player in the 21-man squad - as cover, could be enough, and drop Bacary Sagna.
On the other side, the off-colour Aleks Kolarov could make way, with Gael Clichy covered by Eliaquim Mangala.
City also have excellent full backs in the youth ranks – Angelino, Ashley Smith-Brown and Matthias Bossaerts spring to mind – and as under-21 players, they do not count in the restrictions.
Selling someone, with Jovetic an obvious candidate, would also solve the problem of finding the money for the Bony deal.
City are still subject to a restriction of a £49million cap on their net spending, and after their summer business of buying Mangala (£40m), Fernando (£12m), Willy Caballero (£4.5m) and Bruno Zuculini (£1.5m) and selling Javi Garcia (£13m), Jack Rodwell (£11m) and Emyr Huws (£2m) they have £17million left.
That is clearly not enough to buy Bony, so City either need to sell or to make an agreement with Swansea to stagger the payment.
The Uefa restrictions should be lifted this summer, and the Blues already have a binding agreement in place to sell on-loan Negredo to Valencia for £25million in July.
They are also hoping to recoup much of their £12million outlay on Matija Nastasic, and sell Scott Sinclair.
Aston Villa are baulking at the £3.5million asking price for Sinclair, and Schalke, who were head of the queue for Nastasic, are talking up a loan deal with a view to buy in the summer.
But both Milan clubs have entered the chase for Nastasic, with Roberto Mancini – who signed the 21-year-old for City – keen to take him to Inter, while AC Milan have been in touch with the Serb’s agent.
