Erling Haaland can give Man City what they have missed since 2016

It has been a long time since Manchester City were not involved in a summer transfer saga.

Txiki Begiristain and the club have a golden rule of not buckling to demands that are beyond what they think are reasonable for their top transfer targets. That is an admirable stance in an industry where money does so much talking, but it has also prevented the Blues from snapping up deals and completing the squad changes they want.

After a trophyless first season in English football, Pep Guardiola made it clear he thought the squad needed more firepower and support for Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus up front. But while Alexis Sanchez was quickly identified as the player they needed, no progress was made over the summer of 2017 and a deal fell apart on deadline day when Arsenal claimed they did not have enough time to find a replacement.

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One of the most galling transfer misses came a year later, when City spent months haggling with Napoli over Jorginho over a few million, only for Chelsea to sneak in at the last minute and gazump their Premier League rivals as they included the midfielder in a deal for coach Maurizio Sarri. The deal fell through while Guardiola was on the club's pre-season tour, where the decision was made not to buy any holding midfielder despite the position being the priority for the window.

Twelve months on, things got no better. A chaotic few weeks in the Far East was made worse by the absence of a new central defender to replace Vincent Kompany, who had dramatically signed off after his wondergoal against Leicester. If it now seems a relief that City weren't tempted to go above £70m for Harry Maguire, the failure to