Raheem Sterling joining Manchester City from Liverpool is a huge statement from the club - and a landmark transfer.
A fee of £49million has been criticised by many for being an excessive figure, even by football's increasingly bloated sense of finance.
It is the biggest figure City have paid for a player since the club was purchased by Sheik Mansour in September 2008 and takes the overall figure they have spent under his ownership to a whopping £719.1million.
In reality, it was always going to be a sizeable fee that would entice Liverpool to sell arguably their best player to a Premier League rival, regardless of how much Sterling was agitating for a switch.
The Reds were also negotiating in the knowledge that 20 per cent of any fee was to be passed on to Queens Park Rangers.
But it is a transfer that ticks a lot of boxes for City.
He is the 46th big-money arrival at City since Mansour took over from Thaksin Shinawatra and poured his billions into the club.
City have paid an average of £15.63million a player in seven years he has been owner.
(dailymail.co.uk)
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