Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says the club are pressing ahead with plans for this summer's transfer window and will focus on buying young, promising players.
City are half-way through a two-stage plan to freshen up the playing squad, having signed John Stones, Claudio Bravo, Leroy Sane, Ilkay Gundogan, Nolito and Gabriel Jesus last summer.
Goal has learned that Guardiola privately laments the fact that he could not bring in more new players last summer, and was especially keen to overhaul the full-back area.
At the end of the season the club will prioritise new full-backs, a centre-back, a central midfielder, a forward and potentially two new goalkeepers, with the futures of both Bravo and Willy Caballero, whose contract expires this summer, in some doubt.
Guardiola, speaking to City's official website in Abu Dhabi recently, says plans are already in place.
"I am planning, Txiki is planning, the staff is planning, of course," he said. "The manager has to have one eye on the short, medium and the long term.
"We are buying for the long term, that is why Leroy is here, Raz [Sterling] is here, Gabriel is here. All of them around 20 years old, and except in one or two cases where we need experience and maybe we play a player who is 28 or 29 years old because we are sure he is going to give us two or three or four important years, but the younger they are the better."
Guardiola spoke to City shortly after he met with the club's owners to discuss not just the summer transfer window but what lies ahead.
Guardiola met City owner Sheikh Mansour, who bought the club in 2008, for the first time and the Catalan came away with the impression that he has been charged with laying the foundations for decades of success.
But he also admits there are some "mistakes" to correct when it comes to spending on transfer fees.
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