Manchester City: Guardiola takes swipe at critics and says clubs that spend more need to match their success
Manchester City's achievements should be given greater recognition, says Guardiola
Pep Guardiola today took a sarcastic swipe at accusations Manchester City have bought success and pointed out their achievements outweigh their spending.
City were active in the January window once again, snapping up Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi while allowing Oscar Bobb and Stefan Ortega to depart for a net spend of around £55million.
But the Catalan was quick to highlight a relative lack of outlay over recent years when compared to their Premier League rivals.
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Top seven spenders (net spend) in the Premier League in the last five years (figures taken from Transfermarkt.co.uk):
- Man Utd (£675m)
- Arsenal (£663m)
- Chelsea (£651m)
- Tottenham (£574m)
- Newcastle (£424m)
- Liverpool (£420m)
- Man City (£396m)
Speaking ahead of tomorrow night’s EFL Cup semi-final, second leg against Newcastle, he said: “I’m a little bit sad and upset because in net spend in the last five years, Manchester City are seventh in the Premier League. I want to be first! I don’t understand how the club don’t spend more money. So I’m a little bit grumpy with them.
“But, with that position, like we won in the past, because we spent a lot, now six teams have to win the Premier League, the Champions League, the FA Cup, because they’ve spent more in the last five years. These are the facts. You can say opinions like ‘you played good’ or ‘you played bad’ – we can agree or disagree but those are facts.
“Good luck to the six teams who are in front of us in net spent in the last five years, let’s go! I’m waiting…”
In terms of net spend over that period, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Newcastle and Liverpool have all splashed out more than City. The only team to have won the Premier League other than City in the last five years are Liverpool.
City need to think about second-half performances – Guardiola
The 2-2 draw at Tottenham on Sunday left City six points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal. It was a disappointing result given the visitors’ dominance in the opening 45 minutes, after which they led 2-0 and were in complete control.
Guardiola attributed it to growing pains but hoped his players learned from the experience.
He added: “It is the reality. The second half we have dropped what we have shown in the first. It is the youngest side we have had in 10 years and maybe we need to live it and stop trying to do what we did in the first halves. We have to grow with that, definitely.”