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Manchester City will face Arsenal in the 2026 FA Community Shield on August 16 without two of their more prominent names. Savinho and Tijjani Reijnders have both been left out of the squad, for very different reasons.
Savinho’s absence is straightforward enough: the 22-year-old Brazilian winger missed training due to illness. Reijnders’s situation is considerably messier.
A transfer that aged poorly, very quickly
Manchester City brought Reijnders in from AC Milan for £46.5 million in the summer of 2025. He is now nearing an exit to Saudi Pro League side Al-Qadsiah for a reported £52 million, which means City would technically turn a profit, though the optics of a player lasting roughly a year before heading to Saudi Arabia are not exactly a ringing endorsement of squad planning.
Reijnders is 28, Dutch, and was considered a serious midfield acquisition when City completed the deal. The speed of his departure underlines something broader happening at the Etihad: new head coach Enzo Maresca is reshaping the squad on his own terms, and some expensive recent additions are finding themselves surplus to requirements faster than anyone expected.
The Community Shield itself sits in an odd place in the football calendar. It is competitive enough that managers pick strong squads, but forgiving enough that rotating out players mid-transfer negotiation carries minimal sporting risk. Leaving Reijnders out while his move finalizes is sensible squad management, whatever one thinks of how the situation arrived.
Savinho’s future is its own subplot
While Reijnders’s departure appears close to done, Savinho’s situation is more uncertain. The Brazilian winger has been linked with a potential move to Tottenham, though he is absent from the Community Shield squad purely due to illness rather than transfer speculation.
Savinho has earned 13 caps for Brazil but was not included in the 2026 World Cup squad. At 22, he still has time to reshape his trajectory, but playing time and club stability will matter.
Beyond the two headline omissions, City are also without Rodri, who is recovering from back surgery. Rodri’s absence is a more significant concern from a sporting standpoint given his importance to the club during their dominant stretch.
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