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Pep Guardiola does not want to repeat the mistake he felt was made when Manchester City last won the Premier League title two years ago. Then, the champions recruited in the transfer market, with a net spend of £80million, but they compromised on a key area - a replacement for Vincent Kompany. For the centre-half can now be read the centre-forward. Sergio Aguero is leaving this summer when his contract expires, a decision made by Guardiola, and while the manager has successfully experimented with a ‘team of midfielders’ and played without a central striker this season it is not something he plans to carry on with. Given the Aguero decision was made early the club has had plenty of time to source his replacement. “They want to do things this summer,” a source confirmed. In his conversations with City’s director of football, Txiki Begiristain, his closest ally at the club, Guardiola will cite the growing strength of Chelsea. Roman Abramovich spent £220million last summer, hired Thomas Tuchel in January, and will recruit again during the forthcoming transfer window. It helps Guardiola’s hand that Chelsea are City’s opponents in the Champions League final. He regards them as potentially City’s biggest threat next season. Guardiola will also relay his expectation that Liverpool will surely recover and that Manchester United will also enter into the market and build on what is expected to be a second-placed finish behind City. City's problem two years ago was not that they did not invest - they triggered a release clause by spending a record £62.8million on Rodri as a long-term successor to Fernandinho and they brought in Joao Cancelo for £60million from Juventus - but that they were caught out by Kompany’s decision to leave.
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