Manchester City will attempt to wrestle the Premier League crown back off Liverpool by embarking on a huge spending spree and offering Pep Guardiola a lucrative new contract after being handed their Champions League reprieve, claim reports.
City racked up the two highest points totals in English top flight history (100 and 98) to secure back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019.
However, they were denied a hat-trick this term with nine defeats so far leaving them some 21 points behind Jurgen Klopp's men with three fixtures to go.
Until this week, City faced an uncertain future with a two-year Champions League ban hanging over their head but they were dramatically handed a reprieve on Monday when UEFA’s decision was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
City, who are still looking to win the competition for the first time this year, have now been tipped to go on an expensive squad rebuilding exercise as Guardiola looks to close the gap between his side and Liverpool's runaway title winners.
The Times reports that City intend to speak to their Spanish manager about the possibility of extending his contract, which expires next summer, in the wake of the club’s legal victory.
The article says that City would have lost more than £200million in revenue if they had been suspended from European competition for two seasons and that some of City’s players had threatened to demand millions of pounds to cover Champions League bonuses, which would have been unattainable if the ban had been upheld.
The club intend to buy three players with some of the money they have saved and Kalidou Koulibaly, the 29-year-old Napoli defender, is top of their shortlist.
The Senegal international has also been linked with a move to Liverpool this summer and although Napoli’s outspoken owner Aurelio De Laurentiis, who threatened to put his club’s entire first team squad up for sale on the eve of their Champions League trip to Anfield earlier this season, initially insisted he wouldn’t sell the player for less than €100million, City might now land him for around £70 million.
City are also tracking a couple of younger centre-backs in the shape of Benfica’s Rúben Dias and Pau Torres of Villarreal, who are both 23.
Meanwhile, Ferran Torres, the 20-year-old Valencia winger valued at £40million, who has also been linked to Liverpool, is a possible replacement for Bayern Munich bound Leroy Sané.
