During the embargoed section of his pre-game press conference yesterday before his team’s must win game against Tottenham, Pep Guardiola once again highlighted the hypocrisy of it all. The City manager expertly highlighted the fact that his team’s success isn’t solely down to money.
Money is a factor in his Manchester City’s success. There is no doubt about that. It was also a factor in Liverpool’s success in the 70’s and 80’s. It was also ever present in Manchester United’s success during the 90’s. Chelsea joined the party in the 2000’s alongside Manchester United. Manchester City joined the party in 2008 as the financial might of the Sheikh Mansour allowed City the opportunity to compete with the established big boys in English football.
But Manchester City’s financial might isn’t the only reason for the club’s success during the past 15 years. It never has been. The world champions have become one of the best run clubs in European football. With Khaldoon Al-Mubarak at the helm, working alongside Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano and many others it has seen Manchester City’s off-field set up become the envy of many clubs across England and Europe. It is the brains off the field coupled with the genius of Pep Guardiola as manager and the talent, drive, determination, and mentality of the City players that makes Manchester City such a strong and successful club.
READ MORE: Steven Mcinerney previews Manchester City’s must win clash with Tottenham.
The other ‘accusation’ that routinely surfaces at this point of the season is that Manchester City has made the Premier League boring. Or that watching Manchester City chase more silverware is boring. As winners of 5 of the past 6 Premier League titles, there is a misnomer that teams can not compete with City. This is another claim that is wide of the mark. The world champions have been pushed during two of their recent title victories all the way by Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side. This season and for large portions of last season, Arsenal has gone toe to toe with Manchester City. This season’s title race is set to go down to the final day of the season. That is far from boring.
Pep Guardiola was asked about all of this yesterday. He emphatically put the notion to bed. He said: “Before, do you know what it was? It was the money [that won titles]. For that reason why: Man United should have won all the titles. All of them. And the second, Chelsea, all the titles. And the third Arsenal… all the titles. They spend as much money in the last five years as us. They should be there. They are not there. For that reason, Girona shouldn’t be in the Champions League, and Leicester shouldn’t win the Premier League years ago. Now it’s boring? It’s not boring. It’s so difficult to be here again and we want to win it.” The clip can be seen below courtesy of Beanyman Sports.
‘If money was the reason why! Man United should have win all the titles, 2nd Chelsea, and 3rd Arsenal!’ 😡 | Pep Guardiola#pepguardiola #mancity #guardiola
Full embargoed press conference: https://t.co/O4MJYVpvgf pic.twitter.com/O8Lnxsq3VG
— BeanymanSports (@BeanymanSports) May 13, 2024
Pep Guardiola’s comments just highlighted the hypocrisy of it all.
What Pep Guardiola’s comments yesterday did was highlight the hypocrisy of it all. Arsenal has spent large sums of money to contend with Manchester City. Chelsea have spent massively in recent seasons to amass their squad. The same can be said of Manchester United. Liverpool has also spent large sums to compete at the top of the Premier League. That is the nature of football. It isn’t changing anytime soon. But if they become as successful as City have been in recent times, would their success be attributed solely to their wealth or financial investment like Manchester City’s? The answer is probably not.
The hypocrisy of it all lies in how the success of each club is defined. Manchester City is routinely accused of ‘buying success’. That won’t change anytime soon due to a variety of factors. Money has helped, but City’s brilliance on and off the pitch seperates them from their rivals. Pep Guardiola expertly pointed that out yesterday.
Have to disagree regarding the success of Liverpool and Man Utd in previous years. Without a doubt their continued success over time came as a result of being able to sign better players with money, that is not up for debate. (…and I support neither club).
However, the reality is that for both of those clubs the money that brought the players that brought long term success came from beginning to win titles and cups with home grown, workman like players who wanted to be at the clubs. In the first instance it was their loyalty, desire and team ethic that reaped rewards and brought financial gain.
With the greatest respect to Chelsea and Man City (who are now without doubt one of the best teams in the world) the titles and cup wins without doubt came about with the injection of cash from new owners, giving City the ability to attract better players (the same for Chelsea), compete at a higher level with more success which in turn attracts better players, and the model becomes self sustaining.
Let’s make no bones about it, football in the premiership right now is VERY much influenced by how much a player can get paid. If a Billionaire purchased Brentford tomorrow and ploughed obscene amounts of money into them, they would be competing a the highest levels by 2026/27.
It’s just how it is.