Ferran Soriano: Defender Signing Will Signal End of Manchester City's Transfer Business

Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano has admitted that the signing of Manchester United target Eliaquim Mangala will signal the end of their transfer business.

Manchester City have been relatively quiet this summer, having made only three signings thus far. They snapped up Bacary Sagna on a free transfer from Arsenal, FC Porto's Fernando and Malaga goalkeeper Willy Caballero.

The French defender will be their fourth and final signing according to the City chief and it will take their spending to a relatively modest £50m for the summer. Mangala has been linked with a move to England from as early as the January transfer window, with Manchester United, Chelsea and City interested in acquiring the player's services.

The Citizens seem to have won the race for the defender. It is claimed that the player has agreed personal terms with the club as well as passed the medical, but the move is being held up due to third party ownership issues.

'We don't plan season by season, we plan in cycles. We knew one year ago the positions we wanted to reinforce in the team and we did it," Soriano said, as quoted in the Daily Mail.

"We have a new right-back, a new holding midfielder and we will have a new central defender and that's it. We don't need to sign new players for the sake of it," the City chief executive continued.

"We need to sign the players that the team needs because the team has a balance. To win you need to keep the balance. Our squad is very strong and it's the second year they play coached by Manuel Pellegrinli so they'll do much better," he added.

The Premier League champions will now focus on offloading a few players to keep within the sanctions imposed by UEFA due to their failure to comply with the Financial Fair Play rules.

With Fernando coming into the team, Javi Garcia's future is in doubt and he may have to be sold to balance the number of foreign players in the squad.

Meanwhile, English players Jack Rodwell, Scott Sinclair and Micah Richards are also set to depart for pastures new, as they will find it very hard to get any sort of game time with the English champions.