Manchester City Have The Biggest Net Spend In Europe Since Pep Guardiola Joined As Manager

Manchester City have the highest net spend in Europe since appointing Pep Guardiola as manager - with no European silverware to show.

City slumped to a 1-0 defeat against Chelsea on Saturday evening in their first ever Champions League final.

Guardiola arrived in 2016 having won the competition twice with Barcelona and it's been mooted as his ultimate goal at the Etihad.

However, Reddit user mti4 has pointed out that City are by far and away Europe's biggest spenders in that timeframe.

u/mti4 on Reddit & Transfermarkt

Guardiola has spent £859 million in half a decade while only recouping £301 million in sales.

The Spaniard made headlines early on after signing full-back trio Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy and Danilo.

Walker and Mendy both cost upwards of £50 million and Danilo was later used in a swap deal for Joao Cancelo.

Other notable defenders who cost a pretty penny are John Stones, Aymeric Laporte and Ruben Dias.

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Claudio Bravo was signed in Guardiola's debut season and after adapting poorly to English football, Ederson was drafted in as the world's most expensive goalkeeper for a time.

Ilkay Gundogan arriving for £20 million was an absolute steal with Bernardo Silva and Rodri being expensive acquisitions.

Riyad Mahrez leads the way as most expensive attacker purchased so far.

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So if City are so high on the list, where are Saturday's opponents Chelsea?

Despite being cash rich themselves, the Blues are only eighth on the list and fourth out of all clubs in England.

City, Manchester United and Arsenal all rank higher than Thomas Tuchel's men.

Guardiola was accused of tinkering with his team too much out in Porto, starting no orthodox defensive midfielder or striker.

"I decided the decision, to have quality players. Gundogan played many years in this position," he told BT Sport post-match.

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"To have speed, to find the small players, the quality, the brilliant players, inside, in the middle and between the lines.

"This was the decision."

He added: "It has been an exceptional season for us. It was a tight game. We had chances.

"We were brilliant in the second half, we were brave and we could not convert the chances as they were so strong. The players were exceptional. We come back maybe one day again!

"I did what I thought was the best decision (on his team selection)."

Topics: Manchester City, Chelsea, Football, Pep Guardiola

Daniel Marland

Daniel is a journalist for SPORTbible and he has previous experience with Manchester United. He has spoken to some of the biggest names in sport including Rio Ferdinand, Peter Crouch, WWE COO Triple H and WWE legend The Undertaker. May or may not do a decent impression of Jamie Carragher.

@DanMarland_