Erling Haaland, Marc Guehi, Elliot Anderson and Antoine Semenyo are the players Football Insider names as most likely to walk if City are relegated on the back of the Premier League’s financial ruling.
The reporting is speculative. No player has requested a move, no bid has been logged, and the club has not entertained the scenario publicly. It is a briefing from a single outlet about what a worst-case punishment would trigger in the dressing room, not a set of confirmed departures.
None of the four would, on Football Insider’s account, be able to walk cheaply. The report states plainly that “none of City’s recognised first-team players have ‘relegation release clauses’ in their contracts”, so any Championship-bound departure would still need a fee that suits the club.
Haaland’s contract runs to 2034
Haaland is the name every rival will look at first. He signed a long-term extension in January 2025 and his deal at the Etihad Stadium runs to 2034, with no relegation clause built in.
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That leaves City in control of any conversation. Football Insider reports that Arsenal and Real Madrid have already made informal contact, and that a feeling inside the Etihad is that it would be “inconceivable” for the 26-year-old to play Championship football. Even so, a demotion does not by itself make Haaland available. The club would set the fee.
Guehi, Anderson and Semenyo are less exotic names but pointed picks. All three are England internationals with buyers around them, and all three are on long contracts at the Etihad.
Verdict on 25 September, appeal by 9 October
The player question exists only because of what an independent commission handed down last week. City were found guilty on 114 of the 115 charges the Premier League brought in February 2023.
No sanction has been set. The commission has still to rule on punishment, and City have signalled from the start that they will contest the verdict itself. Under Premier League rules the club has 14 days from the ruling to lodge an appeal, with 9 October the deadline. Until an appeal is heard and decided, no points can come off and no fine can be imposed.
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The sanction range being briefed to reporters is what makes relegation more than a thought experiment. Different outlets have floated deductions from 30 to more than 50 points, with 50 flagged as the level required to guarantee a drop into the Championship.
The club is not preparing for it
City’s own posture is that the ruling will be overturned. Chief executive Ferran Soriano used a closed-door meeting of European club executives in Copenhagen on 28 September to tell his peers the fight would run on, Sky Sports reported, pointing to the eight years the case has already run and warning it would take much longer still.
Internally, senior players have been told there is no reason for panic while the legal process continues. The four names on Football Insider’s list are the ones the industry sees as most portable if that message stops holding. City’s appeal window closes on 9 October.
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