Sheikh Mansour oversees Man City transfer first with £65m gamble

How do you improve a squad that has won the Premier League, again?

Manchester City have routinely struggled to find the right players for the right money that can elevate Pep Guardiola's side, and this summer has been no different. Interest in Newcastle talisman Bruno Guimaraes wasn't strong enough to warrant going anywhere near a £100m release clause, and a look at strikers Orri Oskarsson and Kyogo Furuhashi was not enough to convince the Blues to part with any more cash.

It means they have spent just £35.6m in this window - the lowest total since 2006, two years before Sheikh Mansour bought the club - and nearly all of that money is on Brazilian winger Savinho, signed from fellow City Football Group club Troyes. Ilkay Gundogan returned on a free transfer from Barcelona after the 33-year-old got caught up in the wider financial difficulties of the Catalan club, while young striker Divin Mubama joins as one for the future in a move worth up to £2m.

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For an ownership who are obsessed with not losing momentum after success, on the surface such a quiet window is a major gamble. Sixteen Premier League clubs have spent more (so spare us the bores asking how anyone can compete with City for at least a few months) and the low spend at the Etihad has been accompanied by another monster summer of sales that have included the departures of first-team players Julian Alvarez and Sergio Gomez.

Two in for two out may not have weakened the squad but there is an argument with an expanded Champions League and Club World Cup this season that a bigger group was