Tijjani Reijnders Leaves Manchester City After One Season
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 striking end to a short Etihad chapter. Reijnders arrived from AC Milan last summer as a headline signing, fresh from being named Serie A’s Best Midfielder for 2024/25 and carrying the weight of that reputation into a star-studded City squad. Now, 12 months on, he is heading out the door almost as quickly as he came in.
City paid £46.5m to bring him in, a fee that underlined their belief they had secured one of Europe’s most polished midfielders. The move to Saudi represents a sizeable profit and a reminder of how ruthless elite clubs can be when the fit is not quite right, no matter the pedigree or price tag.
Reijnders is far from the first marquee arrival to discover that a single Premier League season can be all they get.
Crespo: Big name, brief stay
Hernan Crespo knows that story well.
Chelsea landed the Argentine striker in the summer of 2003, a statement signing in the first wave of Roman Abramovich’s spending. Crespo had already commanded a world-record transfer fee at Lazio and had just completed a one-year spell at Inter Milan when he arrived at Stamford Bridge as one of the most feared forwards in Europe.
He did not flop. Far from it. Crespo scored 12 goals in 31 games in his debut campaign, a respectable return in a new league and a new country. Yet Chelsea were changing fast. The following summer, Didier Drogba came in from Marseille and the club’s attacking hierarchy shifted overnight.
Crespo was moved out on loan to AC Milan, the big-name casualty of a new era. He did come back for 2005/06 and played his part in Chelsea’s Premier League title triumph, but that proved only a brief reprise. By the end of that summer, he had gone again, this time back to Inter.
A star, a huge fee, one full season before the door swings open. The pattern feels familiar.
Di Maria: Record fee, rapid exit
Angel Di Maria’s Manchester United spell followed a similar arc, only louder and far more turbulent.
United broke the British transfer record to sign him from Real Madrid in 2014. The club, reeling from a miserable first season after Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement, handed Louis van Gaal a marquee signing to signal a reset. Di Maria arrived as a Champions League winner, a game-breaker who had lit up Real’s run to European glory.
He started like a superstar. Early flashes of brilliance hinted at a player ready to own Old Trafford. Then the slide began.
Di Maria later laid bare how quickly things unravelled. The relationship with Van Gaal deteriorated. Meetings piled up, focused on what he was doing wrong rather than what he was getting right. The criticism wore him down. Life off the pitch bit hard too: the early darkness, the cold, the break-in at his house. It all added up.
“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,” he admitted.
United eventually cut their losses, selling him to Paris Saint-Germain at a £15.7m loss. In Paris, he was robbed as well, but he stayed for years because the life suited him. Manchester never did. One season, a record fee, and a rapid exit.
Benteke: Big money, brief belief
Christian Benteke’s move to Liverpool carried a different kind of expectation.
The Reds triggered his £32.5m release clause at Aston Villa, making him their record signing at the time. The numbers at Villa justified the gamble: 49 goals in 101 games, a powerful, prolific presence who bullied defences and looked tailor-made for a leading role.
He wasted no time introducing himself at Anfield, marking his home debut with the winner against Bournemouth. It felt like the start of something substantial.
Yet, as with so many big-money Premier League moves, the chemistry never truly clicked. Styles shifted, managers changed, and the fit that had seemed so obvious on paper became more complicated on the pitch. The promise of that debut goal faded into a familiar storyline: a major fee, a short stay, and a move on before the dust had really settled.
Reijnders now joins that lineage of one-season headliners, leaving English football almost as soon as it welcomed him. For City, it is another reminder that even the most decorated arrivals are only ever auditions. For the player, the question is simpler and sharper: will Saudi Arabia be the stage where his star finally settles, or just another stop on a restless journey through the modern game?
