Pep Guardiola closing in on £1billion of spending at Man City
Pep closes in on the magic BILLION! City boss will take his spending to £918m in five years with £100m Jack Grealish and could smash the milestone IF Daniel Levy lets Kane leave Spurs
- Manchester City are set to announce the £100m signing of Jack Grealish
- It is a British transfer record and the club’s highest-ever spend on a player
- It takes City’s outlay on players since Pep Guardiola arrived in 2016 to £918m
- And if they succeed in signing Harry Kane from Tottenham, they’ll pass a billion
- Defender Ruben Dias, who cost around £62m, was the most expensive before
Manchester City’s £100million purchase of Jack Grealish means Pep Guardiola is fast closing in on an astonishing £1billion spent since he took over as manager in 2016.
The reigning Premier League champions will break the British transfer record to sign Grealish from Aston Villa with confirmation of the move imminent.
That will take City’s spending under Guardiola to just over £918million and should they succeed in their pursuit of Tottenham striker Harry Kane this tally will move above the billion pound mark.
Manchester City are poised to confirm the £100million signing of Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish
Pep Guardiola will get his man as City break the British transfer record to sign Grealish
If City succeed in signing Harry Kane from Tottenham this summer, they’ll pass £1billion of expenditure on new players since Pep Guardiola took over as manager in 2016
Tottenham are demanding a transfer fee of £150m for England captain Kane, meaning Grealish could quickly be surpassed as City’s record transfer outlay.
Guardiola has delivered three Premier League titles, the FA Cup and four League Cups during his five seasons at the Etihad Stadium but this success has required plenty of spending by the club’s Abu Dhabi owners.
No manager at a single club has ever spent more than Guardiola has at City and the big money arrivals just keep coming as they aim to retain their league title and go one better than last season in the Champions League.
According to data from Transfermarkt, some 35 players signed by Guardiola have commanded a transfer fee and, including Grealish, the overall figure now stands at £918,017,363.
Grealish, 25, has been high on City’s target list for some time and they were prepared to meet Villa’s £100m asking price for their captain.
City are the reigning Premier League champions but seem determined to strengthen further
Money is no object for Sheikh Mansour and City’s owners as they pursue a dynasty of success
City’s most expensive signings under Guardiola
1. Jack Grealish (Aston Villa) – £100m
2. Ruben Dias (Benfica) – £61.20m
3. Riyad Mahrez (Leicester City) – £61.02m
4. Aymeric Laporte (Athletic Bilbao) – £58.5m
5. Joao Cancelo (Juventus) – £58.5m
6. Rodri (Atletico Madrid) – £56.43m
7. Benjamin Mendy (Monaco) – £51.75m
8. John Stones (Everton) – £50.04m
9. Kyle Walker (Tottenham) – £47.43m
10. Leroy Sane (Schalke) – £46.8m
In total, since Guardiola became City’s manager in 2016, they have signed 35 players with a transfer fee (including Grealish) with a total outlay of £918,017,363.
Source: Transfermarkt
It far eclipses the current record City purchase during Guardiola’s five-year stint – £61.2m for centre-back Ruben Dias from Benfica last September.
Dias enjoyed an outstanding first season for the club, winning the Premier League Player of the Season and the FWA Footballer of the Year award as his composed defensive performances helped City win the title back from Liverpool.
The transfer fee for Dias was marginally bigger than the £61m spent to bring Riyad Mahrez from Leicester in July 2018, while another defender, Aymeric Laporte, cost £58.5m that same summer.
Joao Cancelo, Rodri, Benjamin Mendy and John Stones have all commanded transfer fees in excess of £50m in the past few years, explaining how they have collectively totalled a billion in just a few years.
But Guardiola does have a very good hit rate with these expensive purchases, with all of those playing regularly for City with the possible exception of Mendy, who has suffered injury setbacks.
Others were bought with one eye on the future. Defender Nathan Ake, for instance, cost City £40m to buy from Bournemouth last year but has played just 13 games so far.
Brazilian forward Gabriel Jesus was £28.8m from Palmeiras but despite a positive start in City blue, the fact they are targeting Kane suggests he is not seen as the long-term leader of their attack.
By the law of averages, not every signing can succeed and certainly some money has gone down the drain during Guardiola’s tenure.
The Spanish striker Nolito cost £16.2m but never settled in Manchester and moved on to Sevilla after just one season and six goals.
Another Spaniard, Angelino, was with the club as a youngster before joining PSV Eindhoven. City then decided to re-sign him for £10.8m but had little actual use for him and signed for RB Leipzig back in February after a loan spell.
Grealish has only just returned to pre-season training after playing for England at Euro 2020
Grealish is set for City and his England team-mate Harry Kane is also a target for the club
Prior to Grealish’s arrival, defender Ruben Dias was City’s most expensive signing under Guardiola at £61.2million
Riyad Mahrez cost a fraction less than Dias when he joined from Leicester City back in 2018
City’s silverware since Guardiola arrived
Premier League: 2017-18, 2018-19, 2020-21
FA Cup: 2018-19
EFL Cup: 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21
Community Shield: 2018, 2019
Champions League runners-up: 2020-21
Brazilian Douglas Luiz – £10.8m from Vasco Da Gama – had work permit issues which meant he spent two seasons on loan at Girona without turning out for City, before joining Aston Villa.
But for all the astronomical figures, one of Guardiola’s most successful signings was also one of the cheapest.
Oleksandr Zinchenko joined from Ufa for just £1.8m to raised eyebrows, spent time initially on loan at PSV Eindhoven before becoming a first-team regular through sheer perseverance and hard graft.
It is a hallmark of champions that they don’t rest on their laurels and continuously renew and refresh. We’ve certainly seen that from City this summer.
Grealish will offer them something a little different in attack and he’s already proven he can terrorise defences at the highest levels.
With Guardiola’s coaching and his prime years ahead, he could ultimately become a world class player.
And if City succeed in landing Kane as well their rivals will be feeling very despondent about their chances of wresting the Premier League title away.
But for Sheikh Mansour and City’s hierarchy, the mission won’t be accomplished until they win the Champions League. They came exceedingly close last season, losing to Chelsea in the Porto final.
It’s taken them nearly a billion pounds to reach this point but as many of European football’s other wealthy clubs struggle with a form of long Covid on their balance sheets, City are powering on.
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