Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, the chairman of Manchester City, has promised that the club, owned by the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, will keep spending as it looks to break into the English Premier League elite.

The capture of defender Joleon Lescott from Everton will take the club's summer spending close to the US$200 million mark, but the Manchester City chairman only sees that amount increasing in future - and accepts the criticism that will accompany that.

"The value of a player is down to the purchasing club," he told the club website. "Maybe the value of Carlos Tevez to Manchester City was different to his value for Manchester United. The reality is we are trying to build a club to be the best in Europe. That takes time and a financial commitment. You will not reach that top echelon of European football by not investing. We have made team judgements on the areas where we need to invest and I think the results will show they were the right choices."

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He added: "There will always be critics and I know that will only increase. With the ambition we have and what we have committed to the club there will be more criticism. It is frustrating but it will only be there because of our success. It doesn't faze anyone here. We are looking forward to proving we can do it that right way."