One part of Manchester City's stance on transfers that is routinely forgotten comes down to value. Txiki Begiristain and his recruitment team have red lines that they will not cross when it comes down to what they are prepared to bring targets in for and let them leave for.
It has been seen in action in recent years in failed pursuits of Jorginho, Harry Maguire and Frenkie de Jong. On each of those occasions, Pep Guardiola wanted a signing but either the transfer fee or the wages went beyond what City's sporting director was willing to sanction.
And it has also been present when selling: just because a player wants to leave does not mean the Blues turn into a charity. Leroy Sane and Bayern Munich found that out in 2019 and Barcelona did with Eric Garcia in 2020; City were willing to considerably lower their demands for Garcia but ultimately that still proved more than the Catalan club wanted to pay so it worked out better value to keep the defender rather than sell him for such a paltry sum.
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It should not really come as a surprise then that Nathan Ake will remain a City player for this season. The club were only willing to sell him if Chelsea came up with at least £50m and Begiristain was able to have a replacement lined up so that Guardiola wasn't any worse off with his defensive options.
As previously reported, the second part of this was even more difficult than normal because of the hard sell for any good defender to potentially sit on the bench for three months before a World Cup. Nevertheless, word on the Chelsea side for weeks has been that the West London club were confident of the deal being done - raising the prospect that City could buckle from their usually strong stances.
Instead, Begiristain has stuck to his principles and the decision has been made that Chelsea will not be signing him. As well as the difficulty in finding a replacement, Chelsea weren't even willing to reach the valuation that City had placed on the defender.
That is good for Guardiola, who will have enough change in his squad next season without needing to teach another centre-back the demands of the position in his game. But it also strengthens City's position in the market where selling Ake on the cheap would have weakened it.
City have shown this summer through the sales of Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus that they only sell if the deal is right for them, and have shown through the purchases of Erling Haaland and Kalvin Phillips that they can take opportunities to buy a bargain.
If new Chelsea owner Todd Boehly was unaware of how the Blues conduct their business, he can consider himself educated now.
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