5. Matija Nastasic
Nastasic  is reportedly surplus to requirements at The Etihad and he could be sold to help City balance the books. He is a central defender full of promise and would be a good replacement for the departing Thomas Vermaelan. I have my doubts City would sell to us, but we seemingly have a decent business relationship having sold them most of our key players over the last 10 years, so perhaps they could return the favour just this once.
Nastasic has his injury problems but if our medical team can iron those out we could have a world class talent on our hands. He is assured in possession and reads the game well but tends to make silly errors from time to time – not uncommon for a young defender. I would offer City £10m and let them consider it. It could do no harm.
I have tried not to include any players who would command an exorbitant transfer fee, although it is impossible to predict the asking price for Premier League players – chances are it is far more than they are worth. The only players I could see us going for in this list are Schneiderlin and Smalling (the latter simply due to United wanting Vermaelan). The others (McCarthy, Stones and Nastasic) would, in my mind, be overpriced. I could see Everton wanting north of £25m for McCarthy and I saw rumours of Chelsea offering £20m for Stones. Both extremely overpriced.