It's not to please needy fans, it's to improve the team and try to win the title and/or CL instead of finishing about 20 points behind Liverpool.
Apart from Laporte and possibly Ake (hopefully!), none of our central defenders are good enough now and need replacing. Again. Players good enough to actually improve us cost a lot because they're good! No point spending a low fee on someone no better than what we have already.
Are we going to teach the people who made City one of the biggest clubs in the world how to do business? We want to sign good players but at reasonable prices. Overpaying for players, especially during a bad crisis, is not the way forward. Wish some City fans stopped question Txiki and Pep every day now. They want to see City strong more than the fans.