Manchester City have not been shy in splashing the cash over the last decade, but the reigning Premier League champions have certainly showed that they are sometimes prepared to keep their money in their deep pockets, if they feel that a player is not worth it.
The much-talked about Amazon Prime documentary All Or Nothing was released yesterday, and it provides an entertaining behind-the-scenes view of City's monumental season last year, where they amassed 100 points on the way to Premier League glory, and also bagged victory in the Carabao Cup.
However, there was a fascinating discussion between chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak in the documentary where he discussed the potential signing of then-Southampton defender Virgil Van Dijk with the club's director of football Txiki Begiristain and chief executive Ferran Soriano.
City were eager to strengthen up their defence in January to maintain their dominance in the English top-flight, and at that stage push for Champions League glory, but Al-Mubarak was not happy about the monster fee Saints wanted for Van Dijk. Al-Mubarak said, "Txiki, a central defender, come on what are we doing?" Begiristain then told his chairman the fee Southampton wanted and it was met with a shocked response, "Come on, you cannot be serious," exclaimed Al-Mubarak.
He continued, "Ultimately, if it makes sense for us we will do it. If it doesn't make sense, we are perfectly comfortable in walking away. To do that, there's only a few clubs in the world that can do that."
Liverpool eventually paid the £75m for Van Dijk, who became the world's most expensive defender, and City eventually opted to sign Aymeric Laporte for £57m, but the fascinating insight in the must-watch documentary just showed that City are prepared to walk away when the deal is not right.
