How Man City signings in £40m-60m range have fared as Kalvin Phillips joins list

Kalvin Phillips has joined Manchester City for £45million as Pep Guardiola continues to make the most of that price bracket.

While fees of £70m, £80m and even £100m are increasingly commonplace at the top level, with Jack Grealish a rare excursion into that market for City, Guardiola and his recruitment team have generally preferred to shop in the £40m-60m range.

A look down City’s first-choice line-up shows a majority of players bought within that bracket and here, the PA news agency takes a look at the impact of those signings each season under Guardiola.

John Stones, £47.5m

The trend started with the arrival of John Stones from Everton in Guardiola’s first summer at the Etihad Stadium.

The England defender is closing in on 200 appearances for the club, with a dozen goals along the way – though perhaps his most significant contribution was the goal-line clearance against Liverpool which helped decide the 2018-19 title race by a point in City’s favour.

That is one of four Premier League titles for Stones at City, along with four League Cups and an FA Cup.

Benjamin Mendy, £49.4mKyle Walker, £45mBernardo Silva, £43mAymeric Laporte, £57m

A pair of full-backs for between £45m and £50m firmly set the Guardiola blueprint and while Mendy was inconsistent even before being sidelined due to rape allegations, Walker has been a foundational piece of both City’s success – with over 200 appearances since his arrival from Tottenham – and England’s resurgence.

Silva joined Mendy in moving from Monaco and has produced magic at the other end of the field, closing in on 50 goals and making over 250 appearances as he largely defies Guardiola’s rotation policy in attack.

Laporte followed in the January window from Athletic Bilbao and while