I may be way off but I am struggling to see where the massive improvement will come from for City. IMO the only good player they have signed is Toure and I`m not sure it is a position they needed upgrading in.
Definately a position we needed an upgrade in IMO, De Jong is great at what he does but Barry just wasn't good enough over the course of the season.
Toure offers what they do, and a whole lot more going forward.
We should be better at both fullback positions, our biggest weakness last time around. And if Lescott is fit for even half a season I'd expect our defence to be much more solid.
Silva will be an interesting one, but he has got to be an improvement on what we got last season from a creative/attacking midfield perspective. Tevez hopefully won't be missing for a month, Adebayor hopefully won't be missing forbtwo months and RSC will hopefully be missing for a season, replaced by someone (Balotelli maybe) that can stay on the park.
Bellend might be gone, he was good for half a season, other than that I can't see how were not much stronger than we were last season. And he dint have the handicap of Mark Twatting Hughes in charge for five months.