Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson feels that Manchester City may rue missing out on signing someone of the calibre of Romelu Lukaku.

The Citizens were linked with the Belgian international before he made the £97.5m switch to Chelsea instead. It is believed that Pep Guardiola’s side were more interested in Harry Kane at the time but, after also failing to sign the Tottenham star, Merson feels they could regret not snapping up a top-class forward:

“Manchester City have proved they can score goals without a big-name striker. But if they don’t win the league or they don’t win the Champions League this season they will be kicking themselves. They will have major regrets they didn’t try harder to get a striker like Harry Kane in if they don’t win one of those two trophies.”

“They’re not in the business of making money. They’re in the business of trying to dominate and win trophies. Chelsea signed a goalscoring machine in Romelu Lukaku. If it goes wrong for City they will wonder why they didn’t go all-out for someone like that.”

Lukaku has had a superb start to his second spell in England, having bagged four goals in four appearances for the Blues so far, but the player has made it clear he would have only left Inter Milan for the London club anyway. A switch to City was never really a realistic prospect.

The failed pursuit of Kane may, though, come back to haunt the Manchester club, who drew a blank against Southampton in the 0-0 draw yesterday afternoon.