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Pep Guardiola will be handed a blank cheque to revamp Manchester City this summer, according to reports.

The Sunday Mirror says that the incoming Blues boss has been told he can spend whatever he feels it will take to refresh the squad after an end-of-season review found that a fourth place finish was “unacceptable”.

City head into Guardiola's first summer in charge armed with a big wad of cash after last season after forging links with a Chinese investment company, which has opened up a rich new market in the Far East.

That means the financial fair play rules which tripped them up in 2014 are irrelevant and City can go on a spree, with Ilkay Gundogan, Aymeric Laporte, Toni Kroos, Isco, Paul Pogba and John Stones all in their sights .

Guardiola finished his time at Bayern Munich at the weekend by adding the German Cup to the Bundesliga title, and will take over at City on July 1.

The Sunday Mirror quotes a City source saying: “To finish so far behind Leicester, having made such a huge investment in the squad, was unacceptable.

“We made great strides in Europe and also won a trophy, but the belief was that, if we didn’t win the title, then we would certainly go much closer than the previous season.

“Fifteen points is a huge gap – and, for that, the manager has to accept full responsibility given the quality of the squad at his disposal.”

The Sunday paper also reports that the club has rejected outgoing manager Manuel Pellegrini's claim that the announcement of Guardiola's succession had derailed their season.

“Manuel has been able to use the confirmation that Pep Guardiola was coming to the club as an excuse,” said the same source.

“What he conveniently chose to ignore was that the team didn’t just underperform for the last four months of the season. It was going on for 18 months.”

Do you think Pellegrini's excuse was lame? Have your say below