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Man City only need centre-back

Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano has said the club's summer transfer business will be complete when they bring in a central defender and rejected suggestions they "sign players for the sake of it."

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Soriano explained that their recruitment is part of a plan that was formulated a year ago and believes the Premier League champions will be stronger this season.

City have brought in right-back Bacary Sagna, defensive midfielder Fernando and goalkeeper Willy Caballero and are closing in on a deal for Porto centre-back Eliaquim Mangala.

And former Barcelona CEO Soriano insists that City are not guilty of scattergun spending, but instead are pursuing a strategy they agreed upon at the start of Manuel Pellegrini's reign.

He told ESPN's Men In Blazer's podcast: "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. 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. 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 Pellegrini so they'll do much better."

Pellegrini said earlier this week that the deal for Mangala is not "100 percent" done, although City accidentally released an interview with the defender on their club website and he was pictured in Manchester undergoing a medical.