On February 26, 2023, Man Utd won the first title under coach Erik ten Hag, the English League Cup in six years, and some of their former players started talking about the “fourth”.

At the press conference the next day, when asked if Man Utd had returned, Guardiola said with a mysterious smile: “Yes, if they spend a little more money. Because they haven’t spent any money in a long time right? Are not?”.

During the seven years Guardiola worked at Man City, this team was repeatedly labeled “using money to buy titles”. Because in the first two seasons, they spent up to 582 million USD to buy players, the most in Europe in the same period. In January 2018, former Man Utd defender Gary Neville wrote on Twitter : “Man City spends 100 million more than other teams but they still complain about not having money?”. When Man City lost the Premier League title to Liverpool in the 2019-2020 season, Neville said: “They will have to spend more money in the summer”.

City’s spending on player transfers has been on a downward trend since Guardiola’s third season. In four of the last five seasons, they have bought players for less money than Man Utd. Man Utd’s ambition of “eating four” disappeared, and Man City’s goal of “eating three” became a reality. That’s why the Spanish coach alluded to the neighboring club “using money to buy titles”.

Over the past seven years, Man City has spent the fourth largest transfer fee in Europe, behind Chelsea, Barca and Juventus, while Man Utd is fifth. The above figures may have been influenced by other factors, such as the fact that Juventus and Barca manipulated the transfer fee of the Miralem Pjanic and Arthur Melo exchanges, causing the numbers to be inflated. But the chart above also shows how much money teams have spent on upgrading their rosters.

Another indicator that measures the efficiency of a team’s operations is net transfer spending, which is subtracting revenue from player sales. Because it will be unfair to the teams because they do not always lose money from player transfers. For example, Man City recruited striker Ferran Torres for $ 36.5 million in 2020, then sold it to Barca for $ 60 million a year later, a profit of $ 23.5 million.

In the top 10 European clubs according to the UEFA index after the 2022-2023 season, only Real Madrid made a profit from player transfers, with $ 17 million. The remaining nine teams all lost, the heaviest was Man Utd with 975 million USD. Because they spent $ 1.268 billion to buy players, but only received $ 293 million in sales.

In terms of net expenditure, Man City costs the third most money in Europe after Man Utd and Chelsea. They spent 1.354 billion USD, earned 627 million USD, lost 727 million USD. The question is whether the $ 727 million loss from the transfer is worth it, with Man City?

Simon Jordan is the former owner of Crystal Palace club in the Premier League, and he values efficiency, more than pure revenue and profit figures. Before the 2022-2023 season, Jordan said that Liverpool made football more efficiently than Man City. “A team that spends $100 million will have to achieve five times more success on the pitch than a team that spends $20 million,” he explains. “Guardiola has a budget of 126 million USD, while Klopp only has a budget of 35 million USD, but Man City and Liverpool are still on par.

Jordan has a point, but Man City’s treble in the 2022-2023 season can make him change his mind. At least Neville thought differently about this team. “Guardiola’s success does not come only for money”, said the former Man Utd player. “In the past five years, many other teams have spent more money than Man City. So their success is thanks to the ability of Guardiola’s teachers and students”.

Considering the ratio of net transfer spending per team title won, Man City is only sixth out of the top 10 European clubs . The $727 million loss helped them win 14 trophies, an average of $52 million for a title, less than Man Utd, Chelsea, Roma, Barca and Juventus.

The chart above shows how ineffective Man Utd and Chelsea are, when “Reds” spend $ 195 million for a title, including no Premier League or Champions League. And Chelsea also spent $ 146 million for a title, but there are both Premier League and Champions League this period.

Real operate most effectively in the Top 10 European clubs. They made a profit of $17 million on transfers, and won 17 titles in the past seven years. Their number of titles is only less than PSG and Bayern, but including three Champions Leagues. However, Florentino Perez’s team is in the transition phase and may have to splash more money in the next few years.

On average, a European top 10 club spends $ 43 million in net transfer spending for a title, which means Man City is also approximately this level. The new king of the Champions League is not the most effective team in Europe, but it cannot be considered that they use money to buy titles.