Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano has hit back at critics of their spending and claims Arsenal and other clubs have spent more.
City’s success is considered artificial by most fans because the Citizens have the money to spend and have broken transfer records to add new men to their squad.
They also pay some of the highest salaries in the Premier League, which means they can easily lure top players to the club.
Pep Guardiola is one of the best managers in the world and continues to show that at City, but some will argue he has no choice but to succeed, considering the number of expensive talents at his disposal now.
However, Soriano is keen for this perception not to overshadow the success they could achieve this season and says Arsenal and others have spent more.
He said via Goal.com:
“Look, you only have to look at the investment in players in England in the last year, three years, five years… we are never the club spending the most on players. There are many other clubs investing more money than us – Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal. Saying that we’ve spent a lot of money and we won because of that is just not true.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Manchester City has shown that money can buy success in the Premier League, and they deserve credit for making other clubs more serious about spending money to improve their squad.
We need to learn from them and splash the cash on new players in the summer ahead of the new season.
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Pure spin from Man City, what Soriano doesn’t say is between 2007-18 City spent £1.5bn on recruitment, and towards the end of this period they hired Pep Guardiola. All very well saying in 2023 Arsenal are spending more, we are playing catchup for a decade of investment at City that at the time no other club could live with. When you spend at that level, you only need 1 or 2 high profile signings a season and a bit of window dressing. Proof of that is Grealish and Haaland over the last two summers. City are still guilty of financial doping and need to be punished.
That’s obviously true. For example between 1980 and 2008 Arsenal’s wage bill and transfer spend would have been atleast double that of city. Why the surprise?
“some will argue he has no choice but to succeed, considering the number of expensive talents at his disposal now”
That’s silly. Guardiola’s been doing things no one else would have – their current playing system is highly innovative, and no where else would you have seen stones moving into midfield and having such an impact, or bernado silva playing so deep, or gundogan being their most (at times only) defensive midfield player and making it work so effectively. It’s not even the case that they have the absolute best players in every position – they have one or two who are among the best around, and the others are very good of course, but guardiola simply gets the best out of each of them.
He should have shown the numbers that prove his claims. Going back about four or five seasons / or showing the overall net spending since the Shieks took over
City has spent a lot on players. But we must also concede that they have bought wisely. And they have improved their players immensely, so much that even their “rejects” command good transfer fees.
You look at what Arsenal paid for Zinchenko and Jesus and what Chelsea paid for Sterling and you see what I mean.
Then you look at Stones. They bought Stones for 50m from Everton, we bought White for the same amount from Brighton. Can White lace up Stones’ boots? I doubt. And you look at Ake and Akanji who did not cost the world but are excellent across the back line.
Then you look at their “old” players (those in their thirties), the likes of KDB, Gundoghan, Bernado and Marez still playing like they are just hitting their prime.
So while I envy their deep pocket, I also admire their good management, thanks to the genuis, Pep.