Big-spending City have an embarrassment of riches

– The club record £57 million capture of French centreback Aymeric Laporte (right) took Manchester City’s spending on defence in the past year beyond the budgets of many nations.

But the Frenchman could be the final piece of a more than £200m defensive overhaul to provide the foundations in City’s quest for a historic quadruple.

Pep Guardiola’s men kick off a run of four matches in four different competitions tonight with a return to Champions League action at Basel in the first leg of their last-16 tie.

An FA Cup fifth-round tie at Wigan follows before Arsenal

London

await in the League Cup final and then another meeting with the Gunners in the Premier League – where City boast a 16-point lead at the top of the table.

However, it is for the Champions League stage that Guardiola was lured by City’s Abu-Dhabi owners and given enormous resources.

“I have always dreamed of big things and one of them being the Champions League,” said Laporte on his arrival from Athletic Bilbao on last month’s transfer deadline day.

Virgil Van Dijk’s £75m January move to Liverpool means Laporte is only the second most expensive defender ever.

But City now boast four of the top six in that category with Benjamin Mendy, Kyle Walker and John Stones also costing a combined £150m over the past 18 months.

Goalkeeper Ederson’s performances have justified his £35m purchase from Benfica in the summer, whilst Danilo has largely been used as a back-up in both fullback roles despite also setting City back £27m from Real Madrid in the summer.

It is therefore little surprise that Guardiola’s complaints that he “had no players” with which to fill his bench in a recent 1-1 draw at Burnley were met with little sympathy. –