Manchester City have the second most valuable squad in Europe, according to the CIES Football Observatory.
Combining the 20 players at each club with the highest transfer value, Pep Guardiola's squad comes in at €1,361m, just under €50m shy of Liverpool (€1,405m). That ranks the Blues well clear of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Chelsea, who complete the top five.
The study uses more than 2,000 transfers that have happened in the game as well as taking into account elements including the age, position and contract of a player and the club and league that they are in to calculate the estimated value.
City have spent considerably over the last four years but Guardiola has been praised during his time at the Etihad for improving the players at his disposal, including transforming Raheem Sterling's game in front of goal and converting midfielders Fabian Delph and Aleks Zinchenko into left-backs.
At £62.8m for Rodri, the club's most expensive buy is some way below the record signings for rivals Liverpool, United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Asked about City's transfer policy ahead of the derby, Guardiola said: "When it comes to expensive players we are ranking 23 and 24 but the club has a bad reputation on that. They say, 'That's just Man City spending money' but, of course it is not true.You just have to see the numbers. Maybe one day it will happen, maybe not. The important thing is to buy good players who fit in to the way you want to play.
"The important thing is to take all the information about the player to reduce the uncertainty of a player being at a new club. Manchester City didn't do that, but maybe in the future it will do it, so honestly right now I don't know. It will depend on the market, the player we have, the players who stay, the players who are going to leave. Many, many things can be involved."
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CIES aggregated transfer value by club (€million)
1) Liverpool - 1405
2) City - 1361
3) Barcelona - 1170
4) Real Madrid - 1100
5) Chelsea - 1008
6) United - 1007
7) PSG - 979
8) Atletico - 836
9) Tottenham - 787
10) Juventus - 783
