Pep Guardiola is one of the best managers of all time, having won titles everywhere he has been involved. The Spaniard has managed Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Manchester City, winning league titles for each. He has won the Champions League three times and is the proud achiever of two historic trebles.
So the general consensus is that Pep is one of the best coaches in soccer history. However, many rival fans believe that Guardiola’s success is mainly due to his huge spending on player transfers and his statistics seem to prove a negative image of the Spaniard.
Pep Guardiola’s transfer spending throughout his career?
There is no doubt that Pep Guardiola is one of the best managers, with his tactics considered revolutionary. Beginning his career as a youth manager at his beloved Barcelona, he counted on the academy graduates of La Masia, forming a dynasty with them. However, later on, we got to see Guardiola spend millions of euros in transfer cash to bring in his ideal players, especially at Manchester City.
Guardiola is a manager who often requires specific players with specific playing styles and traits. Sometimes, he can’t find that player in his team already, and he often has to go into the transfer market. And those players are often the best of the best, requiring huge sums of money to bring them in.
Many rival fans accuse Guardiola of spending money for success, and a certain statistic seems to support that claim. According to Transfer News Live, Pep Guardiola is the manager to have spent the most amount of transfer money in their managerial career. Their list puts Guardiola on top with a total amount of €2.04 billion spent so far in the 16 years he has been a manager.
The nearest manager is Jose Mourinho with €1.86 billion who has recently been linked with Guardiola’s rival Manchester United. Carlo Ancelotti, Massimiliano Allegri, and Diego Simeone make up third, fourth and fifth with other notable managers also making the list.
How much money has Pep Guardiola spent at Manchester City?
There is no doubt as to why Pep Guardiola is on the top of the list, especially due to his Manchester City job. The Citizens have practically given him an unlimited transfer budget since his arrival in January 2016. Pep had to considerably change the squad to his preferences, and had to spend big to get his players.
According to Transfermarkt, his City managerial tenure has seen him spend almost €1.5 billion, almost 70% of his total career spending. These have been spent to bring in 52 players, with 4 of them without any transfer fees. His average spending on a player is therefore €31 million.
His highest ever transfer fee for a player is £100 million for Jack Grealish at City. However, his actual net spend is only £480 million as they have been able to recoup their huge transfer spending with massive player sales as well.
Nonetheless, Manchester City has been deemed to be dealing in financial irregularities, and they have been given 115 charges. It remains to be seen whether City are punished for them, pending an official verdict.
For now Pep Guardiola will manage Manchester City for their next match in the Champions League Round of 16 fixture against Copenhagen on Wednesday.
