Last May, Pep Guardiola threatened he would quit if Manchester City’s squad size was not trimmed. The quit-threat was filed jokingly, but he genuinely believed that a bloated squad makes for an uneasy locker room. “I don’t want to leave five or six players in the freezer. I will quit. Make a shorter squad, I will stay,” he said. A smaller, close-knit group, he argued, would compose a stronger team. But rather than trimming, City fattened the squad. Seven new players were added in both a structural as well as a strategic overhaul; six regulars or squad members left permanently or on loan. In the January transfer, their fortunes ebbing and flowing, City spent nearly 85 million pounds to acquire the services of winger Antoine Semenyo and centre-back Marc Guehi. Both signings have starred in City’s recalibration and the resurgent title sprint. Rather than a reflection of City’s dizzying buying powers it was a validation of the depth required to turbocharge silverware quests, doubles and trebles. The days of managers fielding fledglings in domestic tournaments, …