Manchester City don't often dip into the January transfer market.

The Blues like to do their business in the summer and trust the squad and staff to navigate a season with what is in the building.

This January could be different though. Pep Guardiola's side may have returned to winning ways in recent weeks but a dreadful two months at the tail end of 2024 has seen them slip down the Premier League table and out of title contention.

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City know they need to strengthen and rebuild, both to add depth to a smallish squad that has been ravaged by injuries this season and to forward plan for the future amid an ageing squad.

The Blues are keen on Abdukodir Khusanov amid a potential £20million move for the Lens centre back. His arrival would be the most significant January arrival at the Etihad since 2018 when another central defender arrived.

Aymeric Laporte joined from Athletic Bilbao for a then club record fee of £57m. Within a matter of months the Spain international was celebrating an EFL Cup and Premier League double and he went on to win 12 major honours with the Blues.

But he fell out of favour from 2022 onwards and became unhappy at being a fringe player and then being asked to play left back instead of his preferred central position when he did feature. He was sold on to Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia on the back of the Treble winning season and subsequently spoke about his disappointment at how his time at City ended.

"I decided to leave and I was able to leave," he said. "That's it. I also made that decision for the moment, I think it was the right one, due to life circumstances and also because of my situation at City.

"I had been playing there for a long time, I had achieved almost everything and I had been playing for two years in a place that was not the position that I did not want to play.

"When a year, two years goes by and you do not play in the ideal place for you, it is a little frustrating because you do not show the best of yourself.

"When a year, two years goes by and you do not play in the ideal place for you, it is a little frustrating because you do not show the best of yourself.

"You can make whatever efforts. I was used to playing centre-back and not so much on the wing. It's not exactly the ideal position for me. In addition, they signed many other centre-backs during the last three years of my time at City and it was time to leave and not stay.

"I wasn't quite a starter either, I wanted to play all the games, I am very young or young. I simply wanted to play more. In Europe there were things, but it was not what could fulfil me the most and I decided to move on to something else, disconnect from here a little, change of scenery and maybe come back with more strength."