City have spent £266m on strikers in six years, who has been the best value... and how good is the new boy Negredo?



Seeing Manchester City splash the cash to sign a new first-team player is hardly new these days, especially when it comes to strikers.



Alvaro Negredo’s £20.6m move from Sevilla to the Etihad Stadium is just the latest in a long line of attacking options which have flooded into the club since 2007, with the outlay on goal scorers in that period now breaking the £250m barrier.



Here Sportsmail looks back on the strikers which have arrived at City over the last six years and valued how much each goal has cost the club.

Rare sight: Rolando Bianchi celebrates scoring in a 4-2 win over Bolton during his brief stay at Manchester City

Rolando Bianchi (Reggina, £8.8m) July 2007



Arrived with promising potential and a good reputation having shone in Serie A, but despite scoring on his City debut against West Ham never settled at the Etihad Stadium.



After just half-a-season, manger Sven Goran Eriksson stated the Italian was allowed to leave and following a loan move to Lazio then joined Torino just a year after signing for City.

Games: 24 Goals: 5

Cost per goal: £1.76m



Setback: Injury stalled Valeri Bojinov's (right) City career

Valeri Bojinov (Fiorentina, £5.75m) August 2007



At the time, City’s capture of Bojinov was seen as a coup but the Bulgarian was hit with horrific bad luck through injury during his two-year stay.



In only his third game, Bojinov damaged his knee ligaments against Manchester United ruling him out for the rest of the season. More injury problems limited his appearances the next year where he scored his only goal for the club in a 2-1 defeat at Tottenham. A loan spell at Parma followed in 2009 before he joined the Italian side permanently a year later.

Games: 12 Goals: 1

Cost per goal: £5.75m



Centre of attention: Felipe Caicedo celebrates with Elano (left) and Shaun Wright-Phillips (right)

Felipe Caicedo (Basle, £5.2m) January 2008



A mid-season arrival that City fans would hope boost their strikeforce but the Ecuador international never hit the heights expected of him.



He failed to score in his first half-season and impressed only sporadically during his first full year in 2008/09, by which time the club under new ownership were targeting more high profile players.

Was on the club’s books until 2011 but spent the two previous years out on loan.

Games: 35 Goals: 7

Cost per goal: £740,000



Famous win: Benjani (left) celebrates scoring on his City debut in a 2-1 victory at Manchester United

Benjani (Portsmouth, £3.87m) January 2008



A dream start by scoring on on his City debut in a 2-1 win over local rivals Manchester United, but it was mostly downhill from there for Benjani.



Like Caicdeo, the striker became a victim of the club’s shift in transfer targets and opportunities soon dried up. Spent the last six months of his contract on loan at Sunderland before leaving for Blackburn in 2010.

Games: 31 Goals: 7

Cost per goal: £550,000

Phased out: Jo (right) spent the latter stages of his City career playing in cup competitions

Jo (CSKA Moscow, £18m) July 2008



A club record signing but the Brazil international, who starred at the Confederations Cup this summer, was a big flop at the Etihad Stadium.



With just one league goal to his name, Jo was farmed out on loan to Everton after just six months and spent much of the latter part of his City career under Roberto Mancini filling the gaps upfront for cup ties before leaving in 2011

Games: 42 Goals: 6

Cost per goal: £3m



Frustration: Mark Hughes (left) and successor Roberto Mancini soon lost patience with Robinho

Robinho (Real Madrid, £33m) September 2008



City’s club record signing of Robinho stunned the world, and after just a few months the £33m paid for the forward looked money well spent.



But once 2009 hit, the form dipped, the goals dried up and the Brazil international quickly looked uninterested.



A terrible start to the 2009/10 season saw him shipped to Santos on loan for the second part of the campaign before joining AC Milan at the end of the season.

Games: 53 Goals: 16

Cost per goal: £2.1m



Among the goals: Craig Bellamy impressed during his short spell at Manchester City

Craig Bellamy (West Ham, £14m) January 2009



Signed mid-season, Bellamy scored on his debut in a 2-1 win at home to Newcastle and made a reasonable impact in his first half-a-season at the club.



Became a major player during the next campaign and although not prolific, impressed before falling out with manager Roberto Mancini. The Wales striker joined Cardiff on loan in the summer of 2010 and never played for City again.

Games: 51 Goals: 15

Cost per goal: £930,000

Limited opportunities: Santa Cruz's City career barely got started before the Paraguayan fell out of favour

Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn, £18m) June 2009



Officially Santa Cruz only left City this summer but the striker hasn’t played for the club in nearly three years.



In fact the Paraguay international hardly played at all after Mark Hughes triggered a buy-out clause to sign him from Rovers, where he had impressed in the Premier League. Since 2011, he has been out on loan at Blackburn, Real Betis and Malaga.

Games: 24 Goals: 4

Cost per goal: £4.5m



Happy ending: Despite having a mid-season bust up with manager Mancini, Carlos Tevez returned to the City side and helped them win the Premier League title

Carlos Tevez (Manchester Utd, £26m (paid to third-party)) July 2009



Like Robinho a year earlier, Tevez’s switch was one of the standout moves of the summer as he crossed the Manchester divide.



Unlike Robinho, Tevez delivered. There may have been a few months of strike action during his four-year stay but the Argentine played a major role in helping the club win the Premier League and the FA Cup before departing for Juventus this summer.

Games: 148 Goals: 74

Cost per goal: £350,000



Controversial: Emmanuel Adebayor celebrates in front of Arsenal fans after scoring against his former club





Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal, £25m) July 2009



Stared with a bang with four goals in his first five games, including a controversial strike against former club Arsenal.



But despite chipping in with 10 more goals over the campaign, Adebayor quickly fell out of favour once Roberto Mancini was appointed as manager.



Last played for City in a Europa League tie in December 2010 before spending loan spells at Real Madrid and Tottenham. The Togo striker joined the north London club permanently last summer.

Games: 45 Goals: 19

Cost per goal: £1.3m



Temperamental: Frustration often got the better of Mario Balotelli who was sent off four times for City

Mario Balotelli (Inter Milan, £23m) August 2010



Despite scoring (and getting injured) on his debut, Balotelli endured a frustrating first year to his City career that saw him booked more times than he scored.



The Italian still proved entertaining off the pitch but came good in his second season after scoring crucial goals to help City to the Premier League title. Form dropped again last year though and after a range of high profile incidents the Italy international sealed a £19m move to AC Milan in January

Games: 80 Goals: 30

Cost per goal: £770,000



No pressure on these shoulders: Dezko celebrates scoring during City's 6-1 win at Manchester United in 2011

Edin Dzeko (Wolfsburg, £27m) January 2011



A high profile mid-season signing following his goal scoring exploits in Germany, but Dzeko initally struggled to impress.



The Bosnian’s form has improved over the last two seasons though to begin justifying his transfer fee, with crucial goals from off the bench adding to his value as a ‘supersub’ at the very least.

Despite limited runs in the starting line-up, Dzeko finished as City’s top league goal scorer last season with 14 strikes.

Games: 109 Goals: 40

Cost per goal: £680,000



Magic moments: Sergio Aguero's (right) dramatic injury time goal against QPR won City the league title





Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid, £38m) July 2011



The club’s current record signing and the Argentina international has repaid the faith (and fee) placed in him with some memorable performances to make City one of the club’s leading sides in the country.



Aguero has consistently shone and scored over the past two years and after netting in the dying seconds to help the club win the Premier League title in 2012, will already go down as one of City’s greatest strikers.

Games: 88 Goals: 47

Cost per goal: £800,000

Sportsmail's Alex Kay gives the lowdown on City's £20.6m signing Alvaro Negredo

Alvaro Negredo… should we be expecting another of these false Spanish forwards who wants to drop deep and play six-yard passes?

Not a chance. Negredo is a goal-poacher, an archetypal fox in the box. Most of his goals are scored from a few yards out and he’s great in the air too.

Really? That sounds, well, a bit English…

Indeed, in fact, all of his 25 goals in La Liga last season were scored from inside the box. So expect him to play right on the shoulder of the last defender, looking to pounce on any good service into the box with his excellent left foot. His style is not dissimilar to Edin Dzeko.

Who is going to provide that though? City aren’t exactly the type of team that get it wide and put in the crosses…

That might be about to change. Perhaps the key to Negredo’s success will be fellow summer signing Jesus Navas. The right winger likes to hug the touchline and get the ball in the box. The two worked fantastically well in tandem at Sevilla.

Sounds dangerous. Anything else we should know?

Look out for the wrist kissing. Negredo kisses his left wrist every time he scores a goal. There’s an occasional back flip too. City fans hope we’ll be seeing a fair few.





