People say this all the time but where would they have went and who would be after them.
Sergio Aguero - Barca had Suarez, Real had Benzema, Bayern had Lewandowski.
Barca (Zubizaretta admitted to Barca looking into Aguero but going for Suarez instead because the financials made more sense with the £40m release clause. Bayern got Lewandowski on a free). So who was gonna come and poach Kun?
There was no team better positioned than City in England and none of the really big European clubs who had the money had the need.
David Silva - Again who had the need and the funds. Barca had Iniesta, Xavi, Messi and Neymar in the positions Silva was likely to play, by the time Neymar left, Silva was firmly routed in the middle and too old for the wings. A move there made no sense. Real Madrid had CR7 and Bale for the wings and then moved for Hazard, a player 90% of people at that time would have said is a better player. In the middle Real had Kroos and Modric. Bayern? They had Robbery on the wings and then graduated to brining in young players for value (like Bayern do!). Again there was no real alternative or out option for Silva till he was too old. In was either a case of no need or no money.
Yaya Toure - He only ended up at City because he was deemed not good enough at Barca (by Pep). Truth is City were the only ones willing to chance him. Being at Barca pretty much ruled out Madrid cause he's not a special enough player like Figo or R9 to cross that gap. Bayern were dominating and had a super midfield. Reality is again, no one was interested outside of a few Italian clubs who'd offer a packet of crisps as long as they got him on loan for 8 years free first.
KDB - We only got KDB cause Bayern dragged their heels and he's a weird dude so would likely never go there now. As with Silva above - Real had a legendary midfield, Barca's was coming to an end but still super strong. Who goes for him?
Mostly this thread is wrong (as usual) on players not being taken away from us too.
Off the top of my head Tevez, Sane, Torres, Garcia, Nolito, Negredo, Boateng, Milner all left while City wanted them to stay on but City have a clear policy if someone wants out and valuation is met, they can leave, its that simple.
Last summer Bernardo was close to leaving for Barca but they kept fecking around with cash and couldn't pull off whatever weird behind the scenes financial gymnastics they needed.
Gundogan is odds on to walk for free this summer with a deal to Barca apparently already done despite Pep saying he'd like him to stay.
Laporte has been used sparingly all season cause he's wanted out, but no one has come willing to pay or he'd already be living in Spain.
While its harder to take Cities players now they're constantly at the business end of the CL, for our previous stars, the options to take them away were never there. The big European trio just had better players in all those positions and English clubs were out of the question.