Manchester City's £100million purchase of Jack Grealish means Pep Guardiola is fast closing in on an astonishing £1billion spent since he took over as manager in 2016.

The reigning Premier League champions will break the British transfer record to sign Grealish from Aston Villa with confirmation of the move imminent.
That will take City's spending under Guardiola to just over £918million and should they succeed in their pursuit of Tottenham striker Harry Kane this tally will move above the billion pound mark.

Tottenham are demanding a transfer fee of £150m for England captain Kane, meaning Grealish could quickly be surpassed as City's record transfer outlay.
Guardiola has delivered three Premier League titles, the FA Cup and four League Cups during his five seasons at the Etihad Stadium but this success has required plenty of spending by the club's Abu Dhabi owners.
No manager at a single club has ever spent more than Guardiola has at City and the big money arrivals just keep coming as they aim to retain their league title and go one better than last season in the Champions League.
According to data from Transfermarkt, some 35 players signed by Guardiola have commanded a transfer fee and, including Grealish, the overall figure now stands at £918,017,363.
Grealish, 25, has been high on City's target list for some time and they were prepared to meet Villa's £100m asking price for their captain.
It far eclipses the current record City purchase during Guardiola's five-year stint - £61.2m for centre-back Ruben Dias from Benfica last September.
Dias enjoyed an outstanding first season for the club, winning the Premier League Player of the Season and the FWA Footballer of the Year award as his composed defensive performances helped City win the title back from Liverpool.
The transfer fee for Dias was marginally bigger than the £61m spent to bring Riyad Mahrez from Leicester in July 2018, while another defender, Aymeric Laporte, cost £58.5m that same summer.
Joao Cancelo, Rodri, Benjamin Mendy and John Stones have all commanded transfer fees in excess of £50m in the past few years, explaining how they have collectively totalled a billion in just a few years.
But Guardiola does have a very good hit rate with these expensive purchases, with all of those playing regularly for City with the possible exception of Mendy, who has suffered injury setbacks.
Others were bought with one eye on the future. Defender Nathan Ake, for instance, cost City £40m to buy from Bournemouth last year but has played just 13 games so far.
Brazilian forward Gabriel Jesus was £28.8m from Palmeiras but despite a positive start in City blue, the fact they are targeting Kane suggests he is not seen as the long-term leader of their attack.
By the law of averages, not every signing can succeed and certainly some money has gone down the drain during Guardiola's tenure.
The Spanish striker Nolito cost £16.2m but never settled in Manchester and moved on to Sevilla after just one season and six goals.
Another Spaniard, Angelino, was with the club as a youngster before joining PSV Eindhoven. City then decided to re-sign him for £10.8m but had little actual use for him and signed for RB Leipzig back in February after a loan spell.
Brazilian Douglas Luiz - £10.8m from Vasco Da Gama - had work permit issues which meant he spent two seasons on loan at Girona without turning out for City, before joining Aston Villa.
But for all the astronomical figures, one of Guardiola's most successful signings was also one of the cheapest.
Oleksandr Zinchenko joined from Ufa for just £1.8m to raised eyebrows, spent time initially on loan at PSV Eindhoven before becoming a first-team regular through sheer perseverance and hard graft.
It is a hallmark of champions that they don't rest on their laurels and continuously renew and refresh. We've certainly seen that from City this summer.
Grealish will offer them something a little different in attack and he's already proven he can terrorise defences at the highest levels.
With Guardiola's coaching and his prime years ahead, he could ultimately become a world class player.
And if City succeed in landing Kane as well their rivals will be feeling very despondent about their chances of wresting the Premier League title away.
But for Sheikh Mansour and City's hierarchy, the mission won't be accomplished until they win the Champions League. They came exceedingly close last season, losing to Chelsea in the Porto final.
It's taken them nearly a billion pounds to reach this point but as many of European football's other wealthy clubs struggle with a form of long Covid on their balance sheets, City are powering on.
Mosanya
662
The funniest part of this Grealish saga is that City fans are just having a laugh. They will be fine if he stays, but Villa fans are finished if he leaves 😂
RomanSaikaT
577
Grealish.. If he is from different countries
victorbarcelona
530
I love Pep business way, I can boldly say it now, someone can cover for De bruyne when the injury come calling, you don't expect your star player to play complete season without injury, basically Liverpool lost out of retained the league simply because of injury, football is a business, if you don't spend money you don't win, even the most greedy former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will not make Epl top 4 now if he didn't buy quality players, it's not magic or tactics alone, it's all about how competitive your team is, within your training ground there must be competition, if not you can compete, try to download football manager on your phone and play with average players then you will understand what it take to manage a team....
AngryBi678
413
pep to man city owner: i need more signing i want to beat chelsea 3 times
Layimnoprt
297
Pep needed a target man or a point striker, not a winger or an attacking midfielder. With all due respect to Grealish, he's not better than Sterling or Mahrez, and City also has the likes of B. Silva and Foden who can also contribute immensely in similar position as Grealish. Mancity's focus should have been replacing Kun Aguero with either Kane or Haaland. The English press are very good in overrating players, no wonder why Grealish will now cost about £100m. He doesn't worth that amount in my view. Pep Guardiola needs rest from the game, because his brain is stalked with overthinking, we saw this against Chelsea in the final.
FrankUtd
9
The funniest part of this Grealish saga is that City fans are just having a laugh. They will be fine if he stays, but Villa fans are finished if he leaves 😂
Don’t agree with you dude. No player is bigger than a club. Villa has been there before Grealish so someone someday will step up and become better. Most City success is down to Aguero and he is not yet replaced