Since Sheikh Mansour took over Manchester City in 2008 the club has been transformed from a mid-table side that lurked in the shadows of its neighbours to a side that is expected to seriously compete for Champions League titles.
It’s been a hell of a journey, and in total the club made just the 63 player purchases in that time, setting them back just a few pennies.
There have been some great purchases such as Sergio Agüero, Yaya Toure and David Silva and then some that fans would like to forget (Maicon), so where did some of the biggest names end up?
Robinho
A statement of intent for the club, Robinho moved for a British record back in 2008. The £32.5m paid at the time was enormous money but Robinho never really wanted to be there, thinking he had moved to Chelsea rather than to Manchester City.
After one decent season, he endured an injury-marred second year before re-joining home club Santos on loan.
He then left the club permanently to play for AC Milan in 2010, he stayed until 2015 when he moved to China to play for Guangzhou Evergrande and a year later moved back to Brazil to play for Atlético Mineiro and has been there ever since.
Roque Santa Cruz
He was great for Blackburn, not so much for Manchester City.
In his time at the club, he was loaned out to three separate teams.
The £17.5m man departed in 2013 for Málaga and then joined Mexican side Cruz Azul in late 2014, only to return to Málaga on loan in 2015, got that?
He said he wanted to retire at Málaga but then left (again) to return home to his native Paraguay, in June 2016, where he has been playing ever since.
Carlos Tevez
He didn’t just whimper away like the other two but instead went on to have a colourful career. After his little bust-up with Roberto Mancini in 2011, Tevez returned to Manchester City in early 2012.
He secured a £12m move to Juventus in 2012 and was voted their Player of the Season in 2014 and reached a Champions League final the following year.
He returned to his boyhood club Boca Juniors in 2015 and stayed until last December when he left for Shanghai Shenhua, becoming the world’s highest paid player.
Edin Džeko
Edin Dzeko has now scored more goals (28) than any other player in Serie A this season.
Incredible strike. 🚀 pic.twitter.com/EvBtUDonZY
— Squawka (@Squawka) May 20, 2017
Even though Tevez went on to have success, most fans would probably say they weren’t sad to see the back of him.
Maybe the same can’t be said for Edin Džeko. After making himself an automatic club legend after scoring the equaliser against QPR as his side went on to dramatically win the Premier League in 2012.
Other than that, Dźeko never really got going at the club and moved to Roma in 2015 on loan before making the move permanent in the summer.
Since then, Džeko has been on fire and is currently sits as Serie A’s top goalscorer.
Jérôme Boateng
If Džeko is a maybe on the ‘one that got away’ scale, Boateng is most definitely.
Since he left the club in 2011, Boateng has gone on to establish himself as one of the best centre-halves in the world at Bayern Munich.
In the meantime, City have struggled in finding a consistent replacement. Captain Vincent Kompany has had his injury problems, £49m John Stones has fallen under criticism in his debut season, Eliaqium Mangala hasn’t performed and is currently on loan at Valencia and Nicolás Otamendi has not impressed since he arrived in 2015.
