Man City can repeat net spend trick in summer to cover cost of dream Jude Bellingham signing

When Manchester City broke the British transfer record to sign Jack Grealish for £100m, they had already achieved £60m of sales that summer, lowering the total expenditure significantly.

Last summer, City signed Erling Haaland, Kalvin Phillips, Sergio Gomez and Julian Alvarez for around £120m, but generated over £150m in player sales from the first team and academy to record a healthy positive net spend.

As Chelsea and others throw millions at transfers without selling players at an equal rate, City have got to a position where they can again use their transfer market nous to make the signings they want while also making it two summers in a row where they end up in profit.

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The main two priorities this summer will surely be a left-back and a midfielder, given they have not had a proper, senior left-back for some time, and two of their most influential central players could leave. Ilkay Gundogan is out of contract, and Bernardo Silva asked to find a new club last summer.

If Bernardo went, he would command a significant transfer fee, which would immediately go some way to funding a replacement. Likewise at left-back, Bayern Munich have a £61m option to make Cancelo's loan permanent - and if they don't buy him, City could still look for another buyer.

There may be others, like Aymeric Laporte, who have been linked with exits in light of their reduced playing time of late. Now the likes of Raheem Sterling, Aleks Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus have found success away from the Etihad, others may explore their options. City will always allow players to leave if they wish, so long as they present a suitable offer, and Pep