‘Infinite’ Warchest Or Sheer Ruthlessness, What’s The Primary Driver Of Guardiola’s Unrivaled Success With Man City Over The Years?

The major elephant in the room since the beginning of the 2023/24 English Premier League is Manchester City’s 115 charges for breaching financial regulations. 

What infuriates many football enthusiasts about this is the fact that Everton, who have been found guilty of committing the same crime have already had a 10-point deduction. Meanwhile, the Cityzens, whose charges are much worse than those of Everton are yet to receive any form of punishment as they are still under investigation.

If Everton were to suffer a serious setback this season such as getting relegated, can it be said that justice was served as Manchester City is still going about their business despite committing a much worse offense?

When it was announced that the Spaniard was going to be the new coach of the Cityzens back in 2016, many were of the opinion that he was going to flop in England. This is because they believed Guardiola’s possession-based style of football could not match the intensity of the Premier League.

After Pep’s first season in charge which was rather uneventful, it appeared that his doubters were right. However, seven years down the line and spending over £1 billion on transfers, the Spaniard has achieved unbridled success at the Etihad. 

So far, he has won 16 major trophies as Manchester City’s boss. His side has won the Premier League title three years in a row now and are strong favourites to win it this year again thereby making it four in a row – a new record. The Cityzens also won the treble last season and among these trophies was the UEFA Champions League – a trophy that has been much coveted by the owners of the club.

Aside from Manchester City’s brilliance on the field over the years and the trophies won along the way, it cannot be helped that it is considered controversial how much the club has spent in achieving this despite supposed Financial Fair Play rules being in place. For instance, in Guardiola’s second season in charge, he spent over £200 million on purchasing defenders alone.

No doubt, Manchester City has spent a very pretty penny under Guardiola’s management and these funds have played a huge catalyst in the club’s success. However, it is also important to take into consideration the very challenging decisions the Spaniard has had to make over time when analyzing Manchester City’s success.

For example, his first season in charge was a very underwhelming one. No trophy was one, they finished in fourth position in the Premier and were eliminated in the round of 16 in the Champions League. 

What did Guardiola do to remedy this situation?

He released pretty much all the defenders in the club as they could not effectively implement his strategies and spent over £200 million on building a new defense by recruiting the likes of Kyle Walker, Ederson Moraes, and Benjamin Mendy.

How did this decision pay off?

In the 2017/18 season, Manchester City won the Premier League title by a record 100 points, finished the season as the team with the most clean sheets, and also broke other records along the way.

Before the 2022/23 season kicked off, Guardiola shocked pretty much everyone by releasing forwards Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling despite their stellar performance for the club over the years. He then recruited Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez to fill in for them in the attack.

What happened next?

In the 2022/2023 season, Manchester City won the treble, and among these trophies was the UEFA Champions League – one that both fans of the club and the owners alike have had their sites on for many years. Star striker Erling Haaland didn’t break, but rather obliterated many records along the way and even finished second in the Ballon d’Or rankings, just behind Lionel Messi.

To ensure the club’s continuous unrivaled success over the years, Guardiola has had to make many ruthless decisions and as evidence indicates, these decisions are the primary catalyst of Manchester City’s success.

In football, spending excessive funds is by far not enough when it comes to bringing your ambition to fruition. Proper management also has to be in place.

For example, back in 2017, Paris Saint Germain’s owners spent over €400 million on bringing only Kylian Mbappe and Neymar Junior to the club. These two were meant to main drivers for winning the trophy the club had long aspired for – the UEFA Champions League. So far, they have yet to achieve this and have only reached the final once in 6 years, which they eventually lost to German giants Bayern Munich.

At some point, PSG even had eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, and Neymar Junior spearheading their attack and could not get past the round of 16 stages of the Champions League with these trio.

Now, let’s look at Manchester City’s partner in ‘crime’ Everton. The owners of the club have spent north of £600 million on players since 2016 and the club has not achieved anything significant over this period. The Toffees have never qualified to play in Europe not to talk of actually winning a trophy.

For some years, they even had the legend Carlo Ancelotti at the helm of management and star midfielder James Rodriguez but still could not achieve anything of significance.

Over the years, there have been many cases like that of Everton and PSG where money was pumped into the club and there was next to nothing to show for it. There is a saying that power is nothing without control. In football, you will always need Fiorentino Perez of Real Madrid, Pep Guardiola of Manchester City, and their likes involved in the decision-making process when executing an intensely expensive project.

All this considered, Manchester City as a club committed a great offense by breaching the Financial Fair Play rules and has to answer for this. Investigations have been ongoing for a couple of months and it is hard to say what their punishment will actually be. Some are even predicting the club might be stripped of some Premier League titles taking into consideration Everton’s offense was nowhere near as severe as theirs and they received a 10-point deduction as punishment.

Let’s just see how it all unfolds.

This article was updated 1 week ago