John Dillon believes Manchester City will splash the cash in January in an attempt to glam up the club.
City's billionaire owners have been linked with all sorts of big-name signings as the transfer window approaches, including none other than Jose Mourinho.
Current City boss Mark Hughes, and to an extent, his employers, have always maintained that bringing players through the club's excellent youth academy remains paramount.
But with City struggling at the wrong end of the Premier League, Dillon believes that talk is cheap - and now is the time we will see the world's richest club flexing its financial muscles.
"The whole City story, since the club was bought, is that the right noises were made: we're going to keep the manager and develop our own players," he told the Sunday Supplement.
"But the plan surely is for this to be a bauble for these rich people. They'll want glamorous names, big signings, glamorous managers. That's how it will shape up in the end.
"You don't sit in Abu Dhabi thinking 'how can I spend my money? I know let's see if I can take Man City to the next level by developing the youth system even more'! It's not how the world works.
"They've bought it for more specific and broader reasons than that."
Dillon also believes there will be even more pressure on Hughes' shoulders in 2009.
He says that City's owners will demand flamboyant, attacking football but with so much money invested, will need to see a return for their outlay - which means style and silverware.
"The owners are going to want both in the long run," he said. "You have to win nowadays: we talk about this concept ot winning and being a winner, that sort of thing, far more than we used to.
"The theme of this season's title race and the way it's covered is how dare Liverpool, Chelsea and United fail to win every match, so the City owners are going want both in the long run."
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