Zabaleta: De Bruyne & Martial prove money really does buy success

Manchester City full-back Pablo Zabaleta says spending big money is the only way clubs can acquire the best players and achieve success after witnessing the quality of Kevin De Bruyne and Anthony Martial up close.

City - who are owned by billionaire Sheikh Mansour - splashed out over £100 million to buy the Belgian along with Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Otamendi in the summer transfer window, while Manchester United shelled out £36 million for Martial.

The outlay appears to have paid off, with Manuel Pellegrini's men picking up 21 points from their opening nine games ahead of facing their city rivals on Sunday.

Victory will see City leapfrog their neighbours and overtake leaders Arsenal at the top of the Premier League, and Zabaleta said the club's financial muscle has - and will - continue to be key to them winning trophies.

"Football is like that. If you want to bring in big players you have to pay crazy money sometimes,” he told the Sunday People.

“I understand that, but probably today with television contracts you have two teams in Spain who can pay the money, a few teams in England, and Bayern Munich in Germany.

“Paying big fees is the only way you can bring in big players. Manchester City demand a successful season with trophies and the only way we can do that is to bring in top players like Kevin.

“He has made a great start to the season and Kevin is probably one of the key players for us at the moment. Somebody was talking about him as a possible player of the year, but it is too soon to be talking about that.

”We need players at the club who are hungry for success and Kevin is scoring great goals at the moment.

“He is doing really well and hopefully he can continue in that way."

Zabaleta was adamant Martial's impact at Manchester United has been of the same magnitude as De Bruyne, adding: "It is the same with Martial.

"He is a quality player. I know United paid a lot of money for him but at the moment he is doing really well for them.”