Pep Guardiola Man City Spend

Since joining Manchester City in 2016, Pep Guardiola has transformed the club into one of the most dominant teams in the history of club football. He has collected 11 trophies so far, including four Premier League titles, and could even add another three by the end of the season with an historic treble still alive owing to their impending Premier League title victory and upcoming appearances in the FA Cup and Champions League finals. The club have spent vast amounts of money to acquire some of the finest talents in the world, with Guardiola’s most expensive purchase being Jack Grealish from Aston Villa for £100 million in 2021. Other big deals include Aymeric Laporte (£57m), Riyadh Mahrez (£60m), Rodri (£62m), Ruben Dias (£60m) and Erling Haaland (£52m). Manchester City have been charged by the Premier League for breaking financial fair play rules over 100 times between 2009 and 2018, although a final outcome is yet to be determined. Despite the huge outlay, the club have been able to recoup a significant amount in player sales, such as Raheem Sterling (£50m), Gabriel Jesus (£47m) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (£32m). As such, Manchester City’s net spend during Guardiola’s reign as manager is £478 million – significantly less than Manchester United’s net spend of £835 million over the same period. Guardiola has acknowledged City’s spending, but has also stressed that it isn’t all about the cash. He said in February 2021: ‘We have a lot of money to buy a lot of incredible players. There are many more things – first of all, an incredibly strong organisation, good, incredible, lovely people, the backroom staff, the staff and players especially but when you achieve what this club has achieved in four years, winning a lot of games, you need to have the top players.’