The problem is they do not seem to have quite worked out the limits of their own predatory power. In a global recession, Man City are driving the market and every club trying to salve their debt problems and every agent keen to make a killing wants to be part of it. That makes for a logistical nightmare for the club itself, trying to filter out the real deals from the white noise being generated by those simply on the make.
Outside Chelsea's pursuit of Fernando Torres, which is growing in intensity, there are no other English clubs who can even come close to competing on the big deals. With the market across Europe as desperate as it has ever been, a call from City is a godsend.
Across Europe the transfer market is moribund – one chief executive of a leading European club said he had never seen anything like it. The middle ranking English clubs are cutting their cloth and, with the weakness of the pound and the increase in income tax, they cannot get the foreign players in as they used to.
Spain and France have also been hit by an increase in tax rates as the state stops indulging football clubs. French clubs have had their budgets rejected by their financial controller for excessive optimism in projected player sales. French football used to bring in about €250 million in transfer fees every season. Those days are done.
Besides Barcelona and Real Madrid, who can still pull in big bank loans, Spanish football is also struggling. As their economy tanks after the burst of the property bubble, so clubs are suffering after the banks lost patience with lending them money. The collapse of one of the television companies there will bring serious long-term repercussions.
Italy is little better. Nobody has any money to spend, even Juventus and Milan, while Roma are up for sale and Lazio have been described as "a dead man walking".
The Bundesliga is the healthy man of European football. Many agents are leaving the previously fertile Premier League to work with German clubs. Their model of high attendances and strong sponsorship deals is working.
With Uefa's financial rules being implemented in 2012, the Germans are in a real position of strength.
In this context, City are the welcome freak. They are being forced to pay a premium for the simple reason that they can. The problem for the rest of the big fish in the pond is that City are willing to pay that premium, which is distorting the market and stalling moves. Edin Dzeko, of Wolfsburg, and Mario Balotelli, of Inter, are the latest to bring a potential payday to their clubs. Note that all their spending is bleeding out of English football.
Yet City are still being forced to bring about change by expensive increments. Roman Abramovich spent Chelsea into title contention in his first two seasons, but City have found it harder.
Thanks to the weight of the early spending and the astuteness of the signings, Chelsea almost immediately pupated into the side that we still recognise; City are more like a snake, having to shed skins as they grow.
Having been burned first on Robinho – who has the talent but lacks the fight – and then on Kaka, City's policy is one of gradual improvement at high cost: this summer they have paid £63 million for David Silva, Yaya Toure and Jerome Boateng. All three players have genuine class but are they going to change City into title contenders?
And who are these players replacing except for previous signings of this regime? One of Gareth Barry or Nigel de Jong will have to make way for Yaya Toure, while one of Kolo Toure or Joleon Lescott will have to make way for Boateng. The same is true of Aleksandar Kolarov. City have agreed to pay Lazio £17 million for the Serbia left-back and presumably Wayne Bridge will slip back into being a back-up.
How long will Sheikh Mansour keep agreeing to change-up like this, making his own previous purchases redundant? How many skins will City need to wriggle out of before they find the shape they are comfortable with.
Beyond City there is no appetite for paying big wages. While transfer fees still seem vulnerable to frankly arbitrary fluctuation in valuation, wages are always a fairly steady indicator of a player's real value. The problem is so many players have a distorted view of what that value is, hence Chelsea letting go of Joe Cole and City not agreeing a new deal with Shaun Wright-Phillips.
Cole has apparently lowered his demands from £100,000 a week but he is faced with the same problem that has dogged him in recent seasons: finding regular football. Even if he does sign for Spurs, does he start on the right ahead of Aaron Lennon? Or ahead of Luka Modric on the left?
With four weeks to go, there is a general sense of stasis in the market. Projected big moves have not happened. Cesc Fabregas looks like having one more season with Arsenal. Barcelona, who agreed a fee with Sevilla for left-sided wing-back Adriano on Friday, do not have the money – or really the need – to force the issue with Arsenal while Fabregas himself is not going to turn it public and ugly.
It is his public standing that appears to be motivating Ashley Cole's apparent desire to leave Chelsea – or more pertinently the unwelcome scrutiny of the tabloid press – and with Jose Mourinho having started work in earnest at Real Madrid, his former manager will be keen to test the depth of his disenchantment with England. Real, who have signed Angel di Maria and Pedro Leon, and are pursuing Maicon, are reluctant to pay a huge sum for a 30 year-old, however. And Chelsea, having trimmed their squad of Michael Ballack, Joe Cole and Juliano Belletti, are under no pressure to sell.
Manchester United and Arsenal are being circumspect – neither manager believes there is much value in this market – while Liverpool's concerns are about who is leaving rather than who is arriving. They will just have to sit and watch City slowly grow.