Manchester City have spent hundreds of millions of pounds on transfers since Sheikh Mansour and his Abu Dhabi United Group's multi-million pound takeover of the club in 2008, with over £1 billion being spent within the first three years of ownership alone, according to reports. Money has been no object where the middle east private equity company are concerned and they wasted no time in making their financial muscle known with the 2009 summer transfer window ending with City as the biggest spenders in the Premier League, bringing in the likes of Gareth Barry, Carlos Tevez, Roque Santa Cruz, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure, and Joleon Lescott. The club's transfer policy of 'spend, spend, spend' whatever the cost has reaped its rewards, with the Citizens winning two Premier League titles in the six years since the takeover - in 2012 and 2014. Some of the world's greatest players have joined the Etihad revolution over the years, such as Sergio Aguero and David Silva, and City have since become one of England's most dominant teams. However, this policy hasn't always worked to 100% success, and certain stars have been well-and-truly screwed over by City's attitude toward signing players. Youth development for instance has taken a back seat in favour of signing ready-made players while big-money signings haven't always been big hits. Here, we take a look at 10 players screwed over by the Citizens ludicrous transfer policies.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
