Ferran Soriano, the chief executive of Manchester City, has defended his team’s ability to spend money while acknowledging that three Premier League clubs have “invested more money.”
After defeating Real Madrid 4-0 in the second leg at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night, City secured their spot in the Champions League championship game. With goals from Manuel Akanji and Julian Alvarez, as well as a brace from Bernardo Silva, the opposition was easily defeated.
The result gave Pep Guardiola’s team a 5-1 overall victory. Inter Milan will be their opponent in the final in Istanbul next month. However, after spending close to £1 billion on transfer fees since the start of the 2016–17 season, City has come under fire from certain fans for “buying their success.”
CEO Soriano, though, has refuted the claims. “Look, you only have to look at the investment in players in England in the last year, three years, or five years… we are never the club spending the most on players,” Soriano said in response to Movistar’s query.
“Many other clubs, including Chelsea, Manchester United, and Arsenal, are investing more money than us. It’s just untrue to assert that we succeeded because we spent a lot of money.
Since Todd Boehly came control last summer, Chelsea has spent £600 million on transfers. Enzo Fernandez, Wesley Fofana, and Mykhalyo Mudryk are a few of the high-profile transfers, but with Chelsea positioned in the bottom-half, they haven’t been able to help the Blues improve on last season.
With a net spend of about £540 million over the previous five seasons, United has the second-highest spending record. Only Chelsea have spent more money overall than the Red Devils during that span (£654.21m), and their most costly signings were Casemiro, Lisandro Martinez, and Antony, who they brought in last summer.
With a value of £485.64m, Arsenal is third on that list. Oleksandr Zinchenko, Gabriel Jesus, and Leandro Trossard were all high-profile additions that Mikel Arteta made to his team last summer to enhance it. Leandro Trossard was also added in January to help the team’s prospects of winning the Premier League.
With a net spend of £224.97 million over the previous five years, City is well behind Liverpool, West Ham, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Wolves, and Tottenham in terms of spending. Guardiola splurge out during his first two transfer windows to bring in Ilkay Gundogan, John Stones, and Leroy Sane, while Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne were both acquired in 2015. However, this neglects to account for Guardiola’s first two transfer windows.
Guardiola won’t be too preoccupied with that aspect of the situation, either, as his team’s advancement to the Champions League final increased their chances of completing the treble. We’re closer, he declared. Give me the first two to win!
“In the Premier League, we are on the brink; one more game is required. And I would advise you to maintain composure when we play against our neighbors and in the Champions League final against an Italian team. With what we have accomplished thus far, the season is already excellent.
“Now that the season is over, we must lift the trophies, but we have had such joy and enjoyment with our fans. We satisfied our fans all across the world. They observed a skilled squad in action. The biggest compliment is this. But we’ll make an effort. We are undoubtedly there. The participants can contemplate and visualize it. It’s typical.
“One in each competition, we have three games left. We are capable of doing it. But now that we’ve been there for a while, I value it more.