Manchester City omits Savinho and Reijnders from Community Shield squad amid transfer activity

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 p...