Rumour Hit Parade v25 - The Finale!

Well, it's been emotional....

The transfer window is closed and the Rumour Hit Parade is shut until nearer to the window opening again, which is New Years Day 2027.

Lets have a look at the Deadline Day deals, a look at City ins and outs as King Doug the First splashed the cash and where all the old rumours ended up.

Deadline Day Deals

Ins

None

Outs

Kitch to Sheff Utd on season long loan.
Dovin to Orient - on season long loan.
Raphael to Burton - on season long loan.

Round Up

So, since LAST started the Rumour Hit Parade back in May we have covered 64 rumours, 11 players joined, 23 players moved elsewhere and 30 players stayed where they were. Thats a hit rate of 17.19% or just under 1 in 5 rumours proved to be true.

Some rumours started a long way out such as Stephen Mfuni , some didn't start doing the rounds until a couple of days before like Ethan Pinnock. Some turned out to be complete gibberish as expected, such as Raheem Stirling and Mason Mount , some bids were apparently turned down such as Ruben Loftus-Cheek and some, such as the loans yesterday on Deadline Day, weren't rumoured at all.

And one went on for what seemed like an eternity. #isurvivedthecarlrushworthtransfersaga

Players In

City signed 11 players, including Onyeka and Bentley (came out of nowhere) at an estimated total of £126 million. They broke their transfer record 4 times if figures are to believed - Amenda (£17 million), Tchaouna (£20 million), Rushworth (£22 million) and Yirenkyi (£23 million).

The return of Gus Hamer was greeted with much fanfare whilst City also spent big on Omar Cherif (£20.5 million).

Its way too early to make any serious judgments on whether City's transfer window has been a success. Early indications are that Awoniyi will do a job for us and Yirenkyi is going to be a star.

Players Out

City only sold one player in the whole window, Markelo going to Shabab Al-Ahli for about what City paid for him, £4.4 million. It will be interesting to see where he goes from here, he only stayed 6 months.

There were several players out on loan. Dovin, Raphael and Andrews all need game time for the sake of their progression and aren't going to get that at City this season. The same goes for Bassette although he's unlikely to have a future at City and Brau who probably won't return from his loan either.

The biggest departure is Liam Kitching who has played 107 games for City, scoring 4 goals. He played 41 times in last seasons title winning team but with City signing Pinnock and Amenda his game time was always going to be minimal. His last match was at Plymouth in the League Cup where his error was capitalised on for Plymouth's equaliser. It would be a shame for that to be his last match in a City shirt.

Final Rumour Hit Parade 2026