Pep Guardiola's posturing does not hide Manchester City's spending splurge

Pep Guardiola has claimed he has been handicapped in the quality of players Abu Dhabi has allowed him to add to his squad.
Updated 30 January 2018
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Pep Guardiola's posturing does not hide Manchester City's spending splurge

LONDON: Between 2010 and 2016 Manchester City spent €1.02 billion ($1.3 billion) on transfer fees. According to a study by the CIES Football Observatory this was the largest gross investment of its type in world football — 18 percent higher than Chelsea, 22 percent more than Manchester United, 36 percent above Barcelona, and 44 percent ahead of Real Madrid.
In Pep Guardiola’s first season as City manager, CIES put his new club’s commitments to transfer fees at €231 million — an English Premier League record. So far this season, the Neuchatel-based academics have them at €282 million.
On Guardiola’s instruction, City’s director of football, Txiki Begiristain, has been working to complete two more first-team signings before Wednesday’s winter window deadline. Athletic Bilbao defender Aymeric Laporte will cost €70 million in transfer fees and Shakhtar Donetsk midfielder Fred at least €40 million.
If Begiristain succeeds in adding that pair to a squad that is already 12 points clear in the league, City’s commitments to transfer fees in the 19 months since Guardiola started work will exceed €620 million. The figure for this season alone will be touching €400 million; in the region of a 50 percent increase on the Abu Dhabi-owned club’s past high-watermark.
The scale and velocity of the investment during Guardiola’s time there is underlined by a comparison with the transfer fees paid by Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson. During the Scot’s 21 campaigns as a Premier League manager, United’s gross spend came to €650 million at current exchange rates; barely greater than the cash pile Guardiola has burned through in less than two.
More relevant is the head-to-head comparison with the Catalan’s cross-city rival. According to the same CIES study, United’s transfer fee commitments since Jose Mourinho’s appointment stand at €382 million. In other words, City want to push over the line two deals that will increase their liabilities on transfer fees in a single season above the total incurred by United in four windows under Mourinho’s management.
Guardiola either has not looked
at these numbers, or he does not care. Last week he delivered the following defense of the expenditure which has contributed to the quality of his team’s football. “Of course we spent a lot of money,” Guardiola said. “But the same money as a lot of teams. We’re not the only team in the world that spends money. There are many.”
The Catalan expanded on an argument that City’s spend remained insufficient for the purposes of competing “at a high level in all four competitions”, indicating that — until now — he had actually been handicapped in the quality of players Abu Dhabi had allowed him to add to his squad.
“We have not paid for one player 100 million or 90 million or 80 million,” he said. “We cannot pay right now, they tell me, we cannot. And the salaries, we cannot pay. That is the truth. Maybe in the future it’s going to happen.”
Guardiola is correct that City have yet to commit more than €75 million to a transfer fee. It is also true that recent attempts to recruit Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi fell through because Paris Saint-Germain outbid them for the first two, while the latter used City’s interest to extract an unprecedented pay package from Barcelona.
His complaint on salaries, however, came in a month in which City added to a slew of recent contract renewals by upgrading Kevin De Bruyne’s to one which guarantees the Belgian £265,000 ($328,000) a week. Including easily attainable bonuses it will pay over £300,000 a week in a normal season, and could reach £400,000 a week in an exceptional one.
The contracts City offer players have an unusually large performance-related component; one reason why you can expect its wage bill to reach a record level for a Premier League club this season. For 2016-17, City reported salary costs of £264.1 million on revenue of £473.4 million. United’s salary costs were £263.4 million on revenue of £581 million.
Although City’s annual report was prepared on a 13-month basis and thus their annualized wage bill lower than United’s, the numbers are for a season in which Guardiola won nothing, whereas Mourinho delivered a Europa League and League Cup double. Once performance-related bonuses are triggered, and once the lucrative new contracts agreed this season have been factored in, City’s spending on player wages will also surpass United’s (which last season still included Wayne Rooney’s bloated pay).
All of this excludes the five other football clubs owned wholly or in part by City Football Group and which Abu Dhabi can use to recruit promising footballers off the books of their most important footballing asset with a view to moving them to City at a later date. Of their domestic rivals only Chelsea have an operation (via Vitesse Arnhem) even vaguely similar.
With UEFA drawing the crosshairs of a new Financial Fair Play system toward Abu Dhabi and Qatar’s two football clubs it is little wonder that City have grown touchy about mention of their finances. The football Guardiola has delivered this season has been exceptional. He does himself and his employers few favors, though, by trying to pretend it has not been delivered with the aid of the most voracious spend in the history of the sport.


Slot not surprised by flying start at Liverpool

Updated 08 November 2024
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Slot not surprised by flying start at Liverpool

  • Slot appeared to have a tough ask to follow Jurgen Klopp
  • The Dutch coach has won 14 and drawn one of his 16 matches in charge

Liverpool: Arne Slot said he is not shocked by a stunning start to life in charge of Liverpool as the Reds have stormed to the top of the Premier League and Champions League.
The Dutch coach has won 14 and drawn one of his 16 matches in charge in all competitions as the holders have also progressed to the League Cup quarter-finals.
Slot appeared to have a tough ask to follow Jurgen Klopp.
But he has built on the solid foundations left by the German after Liverpool finished third in the Premier League behind Manchester City and Arsenal last season.
“Surprise isn’t the right word I’d use because I knew the quality of our team. But quality is one thing, to be consistent is a second thing,” said Slot at his pre-match press conference ahead of hosting Aston Villa on Saturday.
“From the moment I started working with them I saw how much energy they put in on a daily basis and that is I think the reason you can be consistent.”
Liverpool were inspired by the power of the Anfield crowd to come from behind to beat Brighton 2-1 last weekend to move two points ahead of City at the top of the Premier League.
A similar atmosphere helped blow Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen away 4-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Slot is keen to keep his players’ feet on the ground but is happy for the fans to get excited about the possibility of just a second league title in 35 years.
“If the end result of them being excited is to bring the atmosphere of the second half against Brighton and the whole game against Leverkusen, I am hoping they will keep being excited because that atmosphere helped us a lot,” added the former Feyenoord boss.
Diogo Jota remains sidelined but should return after November’s international break.


Pakistan’s Muhammad Asif wins IBSF World Snooker Championship in Qatar

Updated 08 November 2024
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Pakistan’s Muhammad Asif wins IBSF World Snooker Championship in Qatar

  • Asif defeated Iran’s Ali Ghareghozlou 5-3 to clinch the title for 3rd time
  • PM Shehbaz Sharif promises to set up world-class facilities for sportsmen

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has congratulated Pakistani cueist Muhammad Asif for winning the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF) World Snooker Championship in Qatar for the third time, Pakistani state-run media reported on Thursday.
Asif defeated Iran’s Ali Ghareghozlou 5-3 to clinch the title in a thrilling final on Nov. 6. He outclassed Ali 5-3: 70-25, 7-87(84), 82(56)-8, 106(106)-08, 82-12, 43-91(58), 0-118 and 93(80)-4.
“Asif made the entire nation proud by winning the international championship for the third time,” PM Sharif was quoted as saying by the Radio Pakistan broadcaster. “The talented youth of Pakistan are highlighting the country’s name in the fields of sports.”
The IBSF, founded in 1971, is the governing body for billiards and snooker worldwide. It represents 85 member countries and is recognized by the World Confederation of Billiard Sports and the International Olympic Committee.
Asif, 42, first won the IBSF World Snooker Championship in 2012 and went on to win it again in 2019. His victory ties him with India’s Pankaj Advani who has also won the World Snooker Championship thrice.
The Pakistan prime minister said Asif’s family and coach also deserved recognition, adding that providing quality facilities to Pakistani players was top priority of his government.
“The government is making all possible efforts to provide international standard facilities to the players,” he added.
 


Raphinha’s evolution into a more versatile scorer is a big part of Flick’s great start at Barcelona

Updated 08 November 2024
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Raphinha’s evolution into a more versatile scorer is a big part of Flick’s great start at Barcelona

BARCELONA: Raphinha knew he would have a hard time getting off Barcelona’s bench with the soccer world enthralled by teen phenom Lamine Yamal and the club eyeing to sign another hot prospect in the attack.

Instead of pouting, he evolved.

While the entire Barcelona team improved under new coach Hansi Flick, no player has made such a leap forward this season as Raphinha.

His 12 goals and team-leading 10 assists across all competitions are a big part of why Barcelona is playing its best soccer since the exit of Lionel Messi more than three years ago.

But if one player looked to be on the out when the season started, it was the Brazil forward.

Raphinha seemed destined to become a second-choice right-side winger after 17-year-old Yamal helped Spain win the European Championship in dazzling style. To make matters worse, the club was heavily linked to a possible transfer bid to pry Spain left-side winger Nico Williams away from Athletic Bilbao.

That move never materialized for Williams, but Raphinha was still left with either playing in a new position or being a backup to Yamal.

And when Flick gave him the chance to have a new role, he made the most of it.


England gives call-up to more new faces in final squad before Thomas Tuchel takes over

Updated 08 November 2024
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England gives call-up to more new faces in final squad before Thomas Tuchel takes over

LONDON: Southampton defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Newcastle left-back Lewis Hall were called up to the England squad for the first time on Thursday as interim coach Lee Carsley made his final selection before Thomas Tuchel takes charge.

Tuchel does not start until January after being hired to lead the national team’s bid to win the 2026 World Cup.

Carsley will oversee England’s final Nations League games against Greece and Ireland and has continued to look toward a new generation of players, having already handed debuts to Angel Gomes, Morgan Gibbs-White and Noni Madueke since taking over on a temporary basis from Gareth Southgate in August.

Carsley said had not discussed his selection with Tuchel.

“He hasn’t had any influence on the squad selection. I’ve spoken to him by text, but it’s literally congratulations,” he said. “I think he’s highly respectful of the job that not only myself, but the staff are doing.

“We’ve been left to it, like we always have.”

England plays Greece in Athens on Nov. 14 and Ireland at Wembley on Nov. 17.

Carsley will resume his role as England Under-21 coach after those games.


Man City seek to end mini-slump as Liverpool soar

Updated 08 November 2024
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Man City seek to end mini-slump as Liverpool soar

  • Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have become so accustomed to success that three straight defeats feels like a major crisis
  • Ruud van Nistelrooy takes charge of his final game as interim manager of Manchester United and winless Wolves play fellow strugglers Southampton

LONDON: Injury-hit Manchester City are desperate to snap their losing streak in their final Premier League game before the international break as Chelsea aim to deepen Arsenal’s misery.

Elsewhere in the English top flight, Ruud van Nistelrooy takes charge of his final game as interim manager of Manchester United and winless Wolves play fellow strugglers Southampton.

Here are some of the key talking points ahead of the action this weekend.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have become so accustomed to success that three straight defeats feels like a major crisis.

Last week City, who face Brighton on Saturday, were ousted from the League Cup by Tottenham.

Their 32-match unbeaten run in the Premier League came to an end at Bournemouth before Sporting Lisbon beat them 4-1 in the Champions League — ending another long unbeaten stretch.

Guardiola’s men, gunning for a fifth consecutive Premier League title, are just two points behind league leaders Liverpool but will be wary of losing further ground.

Midfielder Bernardo Silva says the club’s multiple injury worries are not an excuse for their poor form but he admits the international break, which starts after the weekend, comes at a good time.

“At the moment with the injuries that we have and the psychological part as well, it will be good to have that rest, but before that we have a big game again,” he said.

One positive for City in their defeat to Sporting was the return of Kevin De Bruyne, who came on as a late substitute after seven weeks out of action.

If results go against them, Arsenal could find themselves eighth in the Premier League by the time they kick off against London rivals Chelsea on Sunday.

Mikel Arteta’s men have picked up just one point from their past three league games and lost their midweek Champions League clash against Inter Milan 1-0.

Arteta was upbeat despite the defeat at the San Siro, where captain Martin Odegaard made a welcome return to action after being absent since late August.

But defeat against in-form Chelsea plus a win for Liverpool would leave Arsenal, runners-up in each of the past two seasons, 10 points off top spot.

Thierry Henry said on CBS Sports that if Liverpool and City win at the weekend and Arsenal lose, his former side could be out of the title race.

“It would be extremely difficult because you (would) have too many teams to catch... I don’t see two teams collapsing,” he said.

Arne Slot has won 14 of his first 16 games in charge of Liverpool in all competitions.

The club had a relatively kind fixture list at the start of the season but they show no signs of letting up — taking seven points from games against Chelsea, Arsenal and Brighton in recent weeks and boasting a perfect record in the Champions League.

Liverpool have also beaten two Premier League teams, West Ham and Brighton, on their way to the League Cup quarter-finals.

Former Feyenoord boss Slot brushed off a question about whether he was finding his new job “easy” after Liverpool’s thumping 4-0 win against German champions Bayer Leverkusen this week.

“Every team that plays against us is in the top of their game,” he said. “And if you want to win that, you always have to be consistent in your intensity, and that’s not always easy but that is what’s needed.”

Liverpool have a tough run of fixtures coming up, starting with Aston Villa at home on Saturday, but so far they have proved they have what it takes.

Fixtures

Saturday (1500 GMT unless stated)

Brentford vs. Bournemouth, Crystal Palace v Fulham, West Ham vs. Everton, Wolves vs. Southampton, Brighton v Manchester City (1730), Liverpool vs. Aston Villa (2000)

Sunday (1400 unless stated)

Manchester Utd vs. Leicester, Nottingham Forest vs. Newcastle, Tottenham vs. Ipswich, Chelsea vss. Arsenal (1630)