Alvaro Negredo cost Manchester City £20 million in 2013. Signed the same summer, Stevan Jovetic came in at a little more: roughly £22m from Fiorentina. Two years earlier, Edin Dzeko, had been more expensive still; Wolfsburg held out for £27m before agreeing to sell. Between the three of them, they set Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan back some £69m.
Of the three, only Jovetic can be said to have been a genuine disappointment. His time in England was interrupted by injuries -- injuries that cannot, in fairness, have really been a surprise to the club that performed due diligence before signing him -- and pockmarked with anodyne performances.