Martin Samuel says it's £172M...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2999712/Manuel-Pellegrini-wants-crack-player-did-Manchester-City-spend-172m-on.html

Crack players. Manuel Pellegrini needs some, he says. ‘A special player to give us that sense we are at another level,’ he explained. He mentioned the impact of Sergio Aguero when he arrived at Manchester City, of Luis Suarez at Barcelona this season.
He blamed the limitations placed on his club by financial fair play regulations. Yet Manchester City have not exactly been dormant in the transfer market on his watch.
Pellegrini arrived prior to the 2013-14 season, director of football Txiki Begiristain on October 28, 2012.
Since that date, Begiristain has overseen player expenditure totalling £172.1million, not including free transfers, quite enough to insulate against the traumas of FFP. Any good ones? There’s the rub. The nucleus City will be relying upon against Barcelona are those purchased before Begiristain’s tenure.

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Manchester City's expensively assembled squad train ahead of their do-or-die tie against Barcelona

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Wilfried Bony (right) joined City for the princely sum of £25m in January but is yet to open his account 

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Manuel Pellegrini is largely reliant on players signed before his arrival in England 


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Yaya Toure, Aguero, David Silva, Pablo Zabaleta, Joe Hart, Samir Nasri, Vincent Kompany — even James Milner, who Pellegrini regards as a unique talent in English football, all preceded the current executive regime. Begiristain’s signings are the unprovens, the departed and the downright troubling: Fernando, Eliaquim Mangala, Jesus Navas, Stevan Jovetic, Alvaro Negredo, Martin Demichelis.
Maybe this is why Pellegrini does not behave like a manager in fear of the sack. Perhaps he has worked out that the pretence City are on course under his stewardship is all that his bosses have left to convince owner Sheik Mansour of their wisdom.
If Pellegrini goes — and Frank de Boer, currently with Ajax, is the latest name believed to be on City’s short-list — attention will turn to the group of players at his disposal.
It is hard to plead FFP-induced poverty when £172.1m has been spent since the summer of 2013.
As for crack players, City could have bought Suarez, Gareth Bale or Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Nemanja Matic and still been left with between £90m and £100m.
The high-end transfer market is no guarantee these days, as Manchester United have found with Angel di Maria, Luke Shaw and Radamel Falcao, but City once played it with a lot more panache.

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Luis Suarez left Liverpool for Barcelona after almost guiding Liverpool to their first title since 1990

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Gareth Bale won the Champions League and Copa del Rey in his first year with Real Madrid

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Diego Costa hit the ground running after his move to England and is the Premier League's top scorer
Between August 2008 and August 2011, Kompany, Zabaleta, Silva, Toure, Aguero, Milner and Nasri were all bought under the guidance of sporting director Brian Marwood. He did not get every deal right— signing players is hardly an exact science — but City entered Europe in 2011-12, and every season since, thanks to a core group he brought to the club.
The present regime talk well about the beautiful game, and chief executive Ferran Soriano placed fine football ahead of winning in his list of priorities two years ago, but the executors of that philosophy at City pre-date their arrival. Fernandinho is arguably alone in being a player bought by the new boss who would be guaranteed a place under the old boss.
We never used to hear about recruitment, let alone recruitment specialists, in the days before the influx of foreign coaches. When the likes of Harry Redknapp did it, the phrase was wheeler-dealing, and it was spat at him like he was knocking out reconditioned BMWs in the Old Kent Road.
Yet Begiristain has overseen 56 transactions in less than three years, including 37 transfers, 17 loans and two professionals released. His background, however, means he gets credited with recruitment, not flogging second-hand cars. Still, you could buy quite a few good little runners for £172.1m.

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Fernandinho (right) is arguably the only one of Begiristain's buys who would make it into Mancini's side

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Frank de Boer is highly thought of at Manchester City and was on the shortlist to replace Roberto Mancini

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Txiki Begiristain has spent £172.1m on buying players, yet City rely on a core purchased before his arrival
If City’s next move is for De Boer it would at least make sense. He is Dutch and the Barcelona system City are so desperate to emulate is, in essence, orange, not red and blue. De Boer has won four straight Dutch titles but is unlikely to make it five because Ajax trail PSV Eindhoven by 11 points.
He impressed the City hierarchy when facing them in the Champions League group stage in 2012 — Ajax won at home and drew away but were the best side both times — and his teams play in a cultured, attacking manner. De Boer was considered when Roberto Mancini left, although the final two-man short-list comprised Pellegrini and Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers.
Yet what would it say if, as expected, City end the season without a trophy and Pellegrini is dismissed, having won the league a year ago.
It would align City more with the whims of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, and train a spotlight on the absence of crack players arriving in the last two seasons.
Maybe Pellegrini’s greatest worth to his City bosses is not so much as a manager, more as a human shield.

He's right. We've not bought 'crack' players.

We've just bought 'cack' players.

Remind me what happened to Marwood? Was he simply moved aside because the 2 for Barca were available?

Marwood is the academy director.