After an active winter transfer window, Manchester City must now deal with a major issue ahead of their Champions League knockout clash against Real Madrid......CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>.....CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
While the squad has been strengthened with several signings, UEFA regulations will force Pep Guardiola to make tough decisions regarding squad registration.
The January transfer window saw City invest heavily, bringing in Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis, and Omar Marmoush. In addition, Claudio Echeverri, signed from River Plate last year, is set to join the squad later this month. These reinforcements were brought in to boost the team’s performance in the second half of the season, especially after City narrowly secured a place in the Champions League knockout rounds.
Guardiola is preparing for a fourth consecutive meeting with Real Madrid in the competition, acknowledging the difficulty of the upcoming fixtures. “It already feels like a derby, four years in a row against Madrid,” he said. “Madrid or Bayern, both were very difficult. I hope we can arrive at the first leg and the return match in Madrid in the best condition possible.”
The UEFA squad registration issue
Despite these new signings, UEFA’s squad registration rules limit the number of new players who can be added to the Champions League squad.
Each club can only register a maximum of three new players in their List A squad for the knockout stages. City’s List A already consists of a maximum of 25 players, including homegrown quota requirements. Since the club signed five new players who could be eligible for European competition, Guardiola will have to make a painful choice—two of them will have to be left out.
The deadline to finalize these decisions is midnight on Thursday, February 6. While Guardiola has been given more depth in his squad, he now faces a selection headache: which two signings will miss out on the Champions League knockout stage?