Borussia Dortmund banked more than £65m from Manchester City this summer as they reinforced their reputation for excellent recruitment, development and profit-making.
However, they will be received warmly at the Etihad this week for their role in ensuring that Txiki Begiristain managed not just to land the next superstar in world football but do it while turning an enormous profit for City — in an extraordinary summer window that has seen the club generate a Premier League record total in sales.
Thanks in no small part to Dortmund and Tottenham, City will line up with £51m striker Erling Haaland against his former club on Wednesday rather than Harry Kane, who remains a Spurs player rather than being the most expensive English transfer.
City cannot escape a reputation for spending heavily and they do not try to, having to pay over the odds after their 2008 takeover to force their way to the top table of English and European football and then continuing to spend hundreds of millions of pounds to improve Pep Guardiola's squad.
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