Since Sheikh Mansour's massive money takeover of the Etihad Stadium, City has been aiming towards conquering Europe. They came close to achieving it in 2021 when they were eliminated from the Champions League at the final stage by Chelsea.
The Citizens were counting on the appointment of Pep Guardiola to be the final piece in their quest to win the Champions League, and they had wholeheartedly backed him in the transfer market.
Manchester City's owners have not only loosened their purse strings for Guardiola, but they've also given him a sizable raise. You can't blame the owners for doing so, with players like Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte, Raheem Sterling, Rodri, and Benjamin Mendy all arriving for huge fees.
It's also for that very same reason that so many rival fans find it amusing that Guardiola, who is notorious for his inability to win the champions league, has been unable to deliver the trophy City so desperately yearns for.
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Manchester City has broken the British transfer record by paying a fee of 117 million euros to sign Jack Grealish, taking Pep Guardiola's total spending on incoming players to over one billion euros since taking charge as a manager in 2016.
It's common knowledge that Manchester City has a bottomless pit of resources, thanks to Pep Guardiola's incredible mental arithmetic in attempting to explain how the team could afford to acquire Grealish.
Manchester City is presently the most expensive European team, according to the 2021/22 season.
Manchester City | £926m |
Manchester United | £877m |
Paris Saint-Germain | £820m |
Real Madrid | £675m |
Chelsea | £669m |
Liverpool | £576m |
Juventus | £563m |
Barcelona | £551m |
Arsenal | £542m |
Tottenham | £472m |
Atletico Madrid | £414m |
Everton | £400m |
Bayern Munich | £361m |
Napoli | £357m |
Leicester City | £352m |
When you consider that City doesn't have a Champions League title to show for their lavish spending, the statistics, which we've been able to confirm on the Transfer market, are damning.
Man City can at least take some solace in the fact that Manchester United is lurking behind in second place and hasn't been in the Champions League for almost four years of the last five.
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Despite this, City isn't the most lavish club when it comes to total expenses, with Barcelona spending a staggering £946.22 million but returning far more than that, almost £600 million.
During the Pep Era, the costliest players in Europe have mostly come from Manchester City. Robinho's £38 million signing just days into Mansour's reign set things in motion, and he subsequently spent more than £1 billion on the club. The following list is a list of the top ten most expensive Manchester City players.
- Jack Grealish - £100m (from Aston Villa, 2021)
- Kevin De Bruyne - £68.4m (from Wolfsburg, 2015)
- Ruben Dias - £61m (from Benfica, 2020)
- Riyad Mahrez - £61m (from Leicester, 2018)
- Joao Cancelo - £58.5m (from Juventus, 2019)
- Aymeric Laporte - £58.5m (from Athletic Bilbao, 2018)
- Raheem Sterling - £57m (from Liverpool, 2015)
- Rodri - £56m (from Atletico Madrid, 2019)
- Benjamin Mendy - £52m (from Monaco, 2017
- John Stones - £50m (from Everton, 2016)
However, the fact that City is sitting at the top of the net spending chart will undoubtedly stoke the flames of contention that Guardiola should have won the Champions League with all his money.
On paper, it's difficult to claim that money shouldn't be able to get you there, but Pep's situation at Manchester might be proof that money can't buy you want.