Tijjani Reijnders Set for £52m Move After One Season at Manchester City
Manchester City are ready to cut loose Tijjani Reijnders after just one season, with the Dutch midfielder set for a £52m move to Saudi Pro League side Al-Qadsiah.
It is a swift and stark end to a Premier League stay that never really caught fire. Reijnders arrived at the Etihad last summer from AC Milan as one of the most coveted midfielders in Europe, fresh from being named Serie A's Best Midfielder for the 2024/25 campaign. City paid £46.5m to bring him in, a statement signing for a side already overflowing with technical quality.
Twelve months on, he is heading out of the door.
The fee represents a profit for City, but also underlines a familiar reality at the top end of English football: even marquee arrivals are no longer guaranteed time. If the fit is not perfect, the exit can be as quick as the unveiling.
Reijnders now joins a growing list of big names who lasted only a single season in the Premier League before being moved on.
Crespo: Big name, brief stay
Hernan Crespo was one of the headline acts of Chelsea’s transformative 2003 summer, the window that followed Roman Abramovich’s takeover and rewired the club overnight. The Argentine striker had already carried the weight of a world-record transfer fee at Lazio and spent a season at Inter Milan before landing at Stamford Bridge.
He did not flop. Far from it. Crespo scored 12 goals in 31 games in his debut campaign, showing the penalty-box craft and finishing that had made him one of Europe’s most feared forwards.
But Chelsea were moving fast. The following summer, Didier Drogba arrived from Marseille and the landscape changed. Crespo was pushed aside, sent on loan to AC Milan after just that one Premier League season.
He would return in 2005/06 and play his part in Chelsea’s title-winning campaign, then leave again, this time back to Inter. For all his quality, his first stay in England felt like a cameo in someone else’s story.
Di Maria: Record fee, rapid fallout
Angel Di Maria’s move to Manchester United in 2014 carried even more weight. United smashed the British transfer record to prise him from Real Madrid, where he had just helped deliver the Champions League.
This was meant to be a reset. After a miserable first season post-Sir Alex Ferguson under David Moyes, the club handed Louis van Gaal a star to build around. Di Maria started brightly, his early performances hinting at a player who could drag United into a new era.
Then the slide began.
“Things started really well,” Di Maria later reflected. “Everything was flowing. Then I started to have issues with Van Gaal and from there everything fell apart.”
The relationship with the manager deteriorated. Di Maria spoke of meeting after meeting, focused on his errors, not his strengths.
“He never showed me what I was doing well, just the negatives, over and over. Eventually I got fed up,” he said.
Life off the pitch did not help. He struggled with the city, the weather, the early darkness. A break-in at his house compounded the sense of unease.
“When all of that happens; when you are not playing, when things aren't going well for you, when you have problems inside the club, it ends up affecting you a lot. It made me hate being there.
“I got robbed in Paris too and still stayed for another two or three years, because life there was good. In Manchester, everything just snowballed. I wanted to prioritise my family and that is why I left.”
After just one season, United cut their losses, selling him to Paris Saint-Germain at a £15.7m loss. A record-breaking transfer turned into a cautionary tale.
Benteke: Statement signing, short shelf life
Christian Benteke arrived at Liverpool as the centrepiece of a rebuild. The club triggered his £32.5m release clause at Aston Villa, making him their record signing at the time.
The numbers that persuaded Liverpool were emphatic: 49 goals in 101 games for Villa, a striker who bullied defences and scored all types of goals. He seemed tailor-made to lead the line.
He even started in the right way. Benteke marked his home debut at Anfield with the winner against Bournemouth, a finish that hinted he might justify the fee and the faith.
But as Liverpool’s style shifted and the club evolved under new management, the fit between player and system came under scrutiny. The club had committed big money, yet the clock on his Anfield career started ticking almost immediately.
Reijnders now steps into this strange Premier League category: elite talent, major outlay, one season, then gone. The money from Al-Qadsiah softens the blow for City, but the question lingers over what might have been if time, tactics or circumstances had aligned differently.
