Stuart Pearce has so far done well to strengthen Manchester City on a limited budget, and with the continued improvement of the club’s talented youngsters its reasonable to expect a top 10 finish.

My club, however, could be tantalisingly close to a more sustained period of relative success. For the first time in over 30 years I believe we have finally got a very talented manager, and to not back him now with more significant transfer funds would be a very good opportunity missed.

When it comes to transfers this summer Stuart Pearce has brought in five new players, three of which have been Bosman’s, and the other two have cost a total of £2.8million. With the sales of Bradley Wright Phillips, Lee Croft and a sell on fee for former player Tyrone Myers the club have recouped in the region of £1.5 to £2 million. As it stand now the club have a summer transfer deficit of around just £1 million. In these dealings Stuart Pearce has shown that he can work wonders on a limited budget.

With the loss of Shaun Wright Phillips last summer the start of last season was not looking good. The only players brought in by Pearce were Darius Vassell and, much to the consternation of City fans, Andy Cole. Yet until the final third of last season these two players formed an excellent partnership at the head of City’s attack. In the January transfer window Pearce went abroad to purchase the young Georgious Samaras and acquire the loan signing of Albert Reira. Despite a difficult end of season it was clear to me that these two players had a mark of real quality about them.

Having not yet seen Osomane Dabo and Bernardo Corradi I am, however, confident that Pearce has again brought in real quality, and I believe he is now very adept in the overseas transfer market. In the domestic market the acquisitions of Dietmar Hamman and Paul Dickov are great bargains for the squad.

Prior to Stuart Pearce the Manchester City board had given substantial backing to Kevin Keegan, most notably £19million for the services of Nicholas Anelka and Robbie Fowler. Whilst Keegan established City in the Premiership the boards gamble failed to bring regular European football to the club. When Wright-Phillips left for Chelsea over half of £21 million fee, much to many City fans surprise, went to paying off the clubs gamble under Keegan.

With a strong spine to the team City now need improvement at both fullback positions and left midfield. A great fullback himself it’s my belief that if the board were again to back their manager then Stuart Pearce could have an excellent team.

An outlay of £10 million by the board would provide Pearce with the funds he needs to turn City into potential top six material. The money this would generate, along with some decent cup runs, would I’m sure mean the board will have accumulated for speculating. This time it’s a gamble worth taking!