Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has refuted the suggestion that Manchester City’s success is down to money, saying if that was the deciding factor then Manchester United “should have won all the titles”.
The Cityzens are closing on a fourth straight Premier League title, needing to beat Tottenham and West Ham to ensure they pip Arsenal to top spot.
Despite City being one of the biggest spending teams in Europe over the last five seasons, their net spend, according to transfermarkt, is only the seventh highest among English clubs.
Others team such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal are among the teams with bigger net spends in that period.
“Years ago people said it’s easy for Man City,” Pep told reporters. “It’s boring? It’s not. It’s so difficult. But before do you know what it was? It was the money. For that reason, Man Utd should have won all the titles. All of them. And the second, Chelsea [for] all the titles. And the third Arsenal…all the titles.
“They spend as much money in last five years than us. They should be there. They are not there. For that reason Girona shouldn’t be in Champions League, and Leicester shouldn’t win the Premier League years ago. Now it’s boring? It is not boring. It’s so difficult to be here again and we want to win it.”
Man City currently sit second in the Premier League table but can overtake Arsenal ahead of the final weekend with victory over Tottenham on this evening.
While Pep refused to accept that City’s success is all down to the money they have spent, he also praised Liverpool for their “incredible” season before Jurgen Klopp departs this summer.
Earlier on, everyone enjoys a three-horse EPL title race until Liverpool fell away in the final weeks of the season.
Although Liverpool are not going to finish with a league title in Jurgen Klopp’s final season, Pep says they have been “incredible” rivals.
“I saw Liverpool in the last weeks,” he explained. “They could not fight with Arsenal but do you know the way they lose the chance to not fight until the end? I saw the games against [Crystal] Palace and [Manchester] United.
“The chances they missed were unbelievable. You cannot believe it. I asked: give me all the chances from Liverpool that they missed but miss it without the keeper. Nothing. They miss it. For that reason they don’t fight until the end.
“They are losers and failures? No. They are incredible, the same team that fight with us for many years. Tell me how many attacking players Liverpool have, and they didn’t score a goal and for that reason they didn’t win. It can happen.
“The important thing is Liverpool are winners because they fought for four titles being there.”
