Stefan Borson: Man City have a troubling finance issue that's 'bigger than SCR'

Manchester City's biggest financial concern at the moment is their ever-growing wage bill.

That is according to former City financial advisor Stefan Borson, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who believes that his former club didn't dramatically reduce their spending on their squad this summer, despite the exits of 11 recognised senior players.

The issue is of growing concern to the club hierarchy, who have regularly handled one of the Premier League's most bloated wage bills in recent years.

Borson believes that the issue poses a much bigger problem for the club than the Premier League's SCR restrictions, and outlined that they are not expected to be in any trouble with the league.

The football finance expert believes that the Citizens cleared £60million from their wage bill through the departures of Nathan Ake, John Stones and Bernardo Silva alone.

However, he also recognised that the big-name arrivals of Enzo Fernandez and Elliot Anderson will have effectively piled all of that back on.

Man City's wage bill ticking up 'aggressively'

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Borson explained that City are still trying to keep a lid on their wage bill, which has posed an issue for them in recent years.

"Yeah, I don't think they'll have an SCR issue. I think the bigger issue really is more about the wage bill as much as anything," he said.

"The number produced for 2024-25 was £468m. And that adds back some of the costs from around the group. So it's a bit higher than the number that's in the account. And that's a big number compared to even Liverpool and Arsenal. 

"It has been starting to get very high. Now on the flip side, if you remove Nathan Ake, John Stones and Bernardo, that's going to reduce it by a lot; those players will all probably be on total packages between £15m and £20m, all gone. 

"However, clearly Enzo Fernandez is not coming for nothing. Elliot Anderson is not coming for nothing. 

"I don't see that there's going to be a huge reduction in the wage bill, but probably it's been toned down a little bit.

"They've got big sales last year and the year before. So they won't have a problem with SCR. They won't have a problem, I don't think, with any of the UEFA tests either."

Tottenham slammed for not striking Man City deal

Former Tottenham scout Bryan King recently told Football Insider that his former club should have made a move for ex-City goalkeeper James Trafford this summer.

The ex-recruitment man feels as though the Lilywhites missed a trick by not taking a calculated gamble on the England international.

Trafford ultimately left the Etihad Stadium for Leeds United in a £40m deal, but King believes that Tottenham may have been a better fit.

He views the youngster as a better goalkeeping option than Antonin Kinsky, and feels that Spurs should have met City's lofty asking price.