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Ferran Soriano, the chief executive officer of Manchester City, has defended his club’s spending power, claiming that three other Premier League clubs have “invested more money.”
Wednesday evening, City qualified for the Champions League final by defeating Real Madrid 4-0 in the second leg of the tie at the Etihad Stadium.
Two goals from Bernardo Silva and one each from Manuel Akanji and Julian Alvarez led to a decisive victory over the defending champions.
It sealed a 5-1 aggregate victory for Pep Guardiola’s squad, who will face Inter Milan in next month’s final in Istanbul.
Since the start of the 2016/17 season, City has spent approximately £1 billion on transfer fees, prompting some supporters to accuse the club of ‘buying’ its success.
Soriano: ‘We Are Never The Club Spending The Most On Players’
However, CEO Soriano has responded to these claims.
“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,” Soriano said on Movistar TV.
“There are many other clubs investing more money than us – Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal,” he claimed, “Saying that we’ve spent a lot of money and we won because of that is just not true.”
Since Todd Boehly took over last summer, Chelsea has spent £600 million on transfers.
Enzo Fernandez, Wesley Fofana, and Mykhalyo Mudryk are among the high-priced transfers, but they haven’t been able to help the Blues improve on last season, as they are currently positioned in the bottom half of the table.
United has the second-highest net spend over the past five seasons, with approximately £550 million. Only Chelsea have spent more than Manchester United in that time (£654.21m), with Casemiro, Lisandro Martinez, and Antony their most costly summer signings.
Arsenal is ranked third on this list with £485.64 million. Mikel Arteta bolstered his squad with several high-profile acquisitions last summer, including Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus, to improve their Premier League title chances.
In contrast, City are tenth in terms of net spending over the past five seasons with a total of £224.97 million, behind Liverpool, West Ham, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Wolverhampton, and Tottenham.
This does not take into account Guardiola’s spending in his first two transfer windows, when he signed Ilkay Gundogan, John Stones, and Leroy Sane, as well as Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling in 2015.
Guardiola: ‘Now We Have To Lift Trophies’
Guardiola won’t be too concerned with that, however, as his team has already secured a spot in the Champions League final and increased their chances of claiming the treble.
“We’re closer. Let me win the first two!,” he said to reporters.
“In the Premier League we are close, we need one more game,” he explained, “And I would say when we play against our neighbors and in the final of the Champions League against an Italian team, be calm.”
“The season is really good already with what we have done,” he continued, “Now we have to lift the trophies but we’ve had so much joy and fun with our people this season.”
Second leg of the Champions League semifinal between Manchester City and Real Madrid. In this picture, Guardiola. – Photo by Icon sport
“We made our fans happy all around the world. They saw a good team playing. This is the biggest compliment. But we are going to try,” he stated.
“Of course we are there. The players can think about it and visualize it. It’s normal.”
“We are three games away, one in each competition. We can do it. But for me it is more important after many years that we are there.”
City will face Inter Milan in a few weeks time in Turkey and a week before that they will face derby rivals Man United in the FA Cup final. This weekend, the side will hope to defeat Chelsea at home to secure another Premier League title this season.
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