Manchester City ended 2024 with a welcome win, they'd love to start 2025 with a new signing or two.

Pep Guardiola's side have suffered so far this season with an alarming run seeing them slide down the Premier League table and leave their Champions League hopes in the balance. But the Blues were 2-0 winners over Leicester City on Sunday and will begin the new year in the top six.

City and Guardiola are keen to add in the January transfer window, which opens today, and the club will be trying to bring in new recruits. But what do City need this month? Our writers give their verdicts.

READ MORE: Man City face two fresh issues for January transfer window plans

READ MORE: Manchester United and Man City learn of Dani Olmo's final Barcelona transfer decision

Simon Bajkowski

The first thing City need to do is keep everybody they already have. That includes James McAtee, who needs more playing time, but also any current underperformers. There may be some who are reaching the end of the road but the squad isn't big enough to jettison them before the end of the season without bringing a handful of new players in.

Spending in January is difficult, as the calls on Martin Zubimendi and Bruno Guimaraes have proven, but it simply has to be done. Exceptional times call for exceptional measures.

Buying cover for a replacement for Rodri feels more difficult because if you've heard of the player in such a specialist role, chances are they aren't moving. More logical would be to buy a centre-back.

Guardiola has talked up John Stones and Manu Akanji among the options for Rodri, and it has also been injuries to centre-backs that really derailed City this season. If you can improve the first line of the build-up, that provides a stronger foundation for the rest of the team.

Aside from that, there is an argument to bring in a forward and Dani Olmo currently looks an intriguing opportunity. That would almost certainly end at least one City career though so the club need to be absolutely sure for a player that they looked at previously and decided against.

Joe Bray

City need bodies, but I'm not sure the players they need are obvious, so it will require some innovative thinking from Txiki Begiristain (or some calculated risks).

A defensive midfielder is the clear priority, yet it must be someone happy to let Rodri come back as first choice next season - preferably after dropping in and playing a starring role in turning this season around. So it might be better to sign someone capable of playing in a double pivot as well as further forward, a bit like Ilkay Gundogan does, or play in another position to help the balance next year.

It's a very specific brief, and one that few players fit. Joshua Kimmich has been linked, and Frenkie De Jong is seemingly always categorically 'not for sale' yet always linked with a Barcelona exit to ease their financial concerns. Both may improve City, but are hardly the perfect addition and wouldn't be easy signings in the winter window.

Any reinforcements in midfield will help, though, and maybe a full-back to ease the burden on Rico Lewis and Josko Gvardiol. Finding a player to cover both sides has proved tricky in the past, however, but it is an area that will need solving in the future as Kyle Walker gets older and Lewis holds onto ambitions to play further forward.

The best way to sign a replacement for Rodri, or Walker, or any player that needs replacing, might be to not replace them at all. Instead, if there were any versatile players who can help out this season and then cover multiple positions going forward, that might have better long-term benefits.