Manchester City were last summer's big spenders in the Premier League and they've continued in that very same vein in the January transfer window.

Last summer they signed Kyle Walker, Danilo, Benjamin Mendy, Bernardo Silva and goalkeeper Ederson for approximately £220 million - £50 million more than Manchester United.

And this month the Citizens are set to spend another huge amount on one player by signing Athletic Bilbao centre-back Aymeric Laporte for £57 million.

Laporte, 23, has agreed a move to the Etihad Stadium and will arrive next week, taking City's number of centre-backs to five.

It's very clear Pep Guardiola has unlimited money to spend at City, yet the Spanish manager recently claimed he's actually working to a budget and can't always afford transfer fees.

Yeah, right.

"When you want to handle four competitions sometimes you have to be lucky with injuries," said Guardiola. "Otherwise you need 22 top players for every position.

"People don't believe this, but today 22 top players is too expensive to buy, even [for] City. Their salaries we cannot pay. There are budgets for the transfers and we cannot pay.

"In the future, it may change but we haven't paid more than £80m-£100m for one player. We cannot pay that right now, it is the truth. That's why we need the academy to fight.

"Of course, we spend a lot money but it is the same money as a lot of other teams. I can assure you we are not the only team in the world that spend money."

Safe to say barely anyone is buying Guardiola's claim of having to budget and now Gary Neville has spoken the truth about what City are like when it comes to spending money.

In direct response to Guardiola's comments, Neville pointed out that if City sign Laporte as expected, they'll have spent close to £100 million more than any other club this season.

Furthermore, Neville thinks City are just trying to pull wool over everyone's eyes by saying they haven't got an unlimited budget.

NEVILLE'S PERFECT RESPONSE

Neville wrote: "If City sign Laporte they will have spent £100m more than anyone won't they? I'm not sure why City are peddling this stuff."

Well said, Gary.

City may be top of the Premier League table and on course to win the title, but there's a sense that they've bought their way there and rival fans can't stand that.

Guardiola can say what he likes about not being able to spend what he wants, but we all know the truth.