Spend, spend spend City aim to build with major signings in push for European glory

Club’s transfer fees could top £600m in two years Manager seeks forward, midfielder and defender

Pep Guardiola’s spending at Manchester City could top £600million in two years as he targets three more players this summer in a bid to address successive Champions League failures and build on the club’s domestic dominance.

City crashed out of the Champions League on Tuesday night when the worst week of their season culminated in a 2-1 loss to Liverpool in the second leg of their bruising 5-1 aggregate quarter-final defeat.

It was the latest in a long line of European disappointments for Guardiola, dating back to 2014 with Bayern Munich. City’s third loss in seven days followed the 3-0 first-leg defeat by Liverpool and a 3-2 reverse against Manchester United on Saturday that denied the club sealing the Premier League title.

Yet City’s hierarchy, who have already backed Guardiola to the tune of almost £450 million since he took charge in June 2016, believe there is no cause for alarm and will continue with plans to sign a defensive midfielder, versatile forward and probably a centre-half.

Julian Weigl, of Borussia Dortmund, Shakhtar Donetsk’s Fred, Jorginho at Napoli and Jean-michael Seri, who plays for Nice, are midfield targets, each of whom would cost upwards of £40million.

City have a keen interest in the £90 million-rated France forward Thomas Lemar, of Monaco, from whom they signed Bernardo Silva and Benjamin Mendy last summer.

Eden Hazard would be a dream target, but there is thought to be an acceptance that Chelsea will not countenance the Belgium forward’s sale to the Premier League leaders at any cost and that, if he does leave, it is likely to be for Real Madrid.

City failed to lure £60 millionrated playmaker Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City in January.

A centre-half is considered less of a priority than a defensive midfielder and forward, but City are continuing to monitor Toby Alderweireld’s situation at Tottenham, among other defenders.

The Belgian who, like Fred, is attracting interest from United, is expected to leave Spurs this summer and would cost around £40 million, although Tottenham would prefer to sell him abroad if he did not sign a new contract, with Paris St-germain an option.

Any move for a centre-half is likely to hinge on whether Guardiola decides to trust in the fitness of captain Vincent Kompany. The Belgian’s return to fitness and good form in the final months of last season persuaded Guardiola a central defender was less of a priority, only for Kompany to miss much of this campaign due to more injuries.

City ended up signing French centre-half Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Bilbao for a club record £57.1million in January, since when Kompany has returned to action.

Speaking last Friday, Guardiola hinted at another big summer of spending by claiming it was “impossible” to challenge for the biggest trophies while playing his brand of football without serious investment.

“It is impossible to do that, to play the way we play, the results we achieved, without top

players,” he said. “And today the top players cost a lot of money.”

City, who have already won the League Cup, could still finish the season with a record-breaking 102 points. But their Champions League exit, following last season’s roundof-16 elimination by Monaco, will increase the pressure on Guardiola to deliver in the competition next season and address a troubling pattern of his teams being torn apart in 15 to 20-minute bursts.

Guardiola’s Bayern and City sides have conceded 23 goals over the course of the manager’s past five two-leg eliminations.

It means Guardiola has conceded more goals in 10 ultimately losing Champions League knockout matches than Bayern did in the entirety of their 34-game Bundesliga campaign in 2014-15 (18 goals against) and 2015-16 (17 goals against). City have shipped just 24 goals in 32 league games this season.