Manchester City are open to signing reinforcements in the January transfer window in a departure from their usual stance on the winter market.

City prefer to do their business in the summer, before trusting their long-term planning to get them through each season. However, an unprecedented injury crisis has stretched Pep Guardiola's thin squad too far, and they have won just once in 10 games.

Their seven defeats in those 10 games is the same as the previous 105 outings. Rodri's season-ending injury has been an undoubted factor, as has ongoing absences in defence and the overplaying of the handful of fit players who are forced to start most games.

Fans have been crying out for the club to abandon their long-held principle of entering the January market, and City are now prepared to make their first mid-season signing since Aymeric Laporte arrived in 2018.

City have signed the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Julian Alvarez in January windows, but immediately loaned them back to their former club or given them time to adapt. Claudio Echeverri will arrive from River Plate after his January addition last year and will train with the first team but will be allowed space to adjust to his new surroundings.

Looking for reinforcements and actually making a signing are different things, however, and there is no guarantee that City will be successful in a window they usually try to avoid. If clubs know they need reinforcements, prices will surely go up.

A midfielder to ease the pressure in Rodri's position is likely to be top of the shopping list, with Martin Zubumendi a name strongly linked with a move to the Etihad. But again, he would cost a premium and Liverpool have also been linked with the Spaniard.

Fans have also suggested some attacking reinforcements could help ease the burden on Erling Haaland, while Oscar Bobb is set for a return in January or February.

Kevin De Bruyne is out of contract in the summer and yet to begin new talks, while Ilkay Gundogan signed a one-year deal with an option of a second year when he returned at the start of the campaign. Kyle Walker, Ederson and Bernardo Silva are among those soon to enter the final 18-months of their contracts.