Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has launched a stunning attack on Premier League rivals Chelsea over their mammoth January transfer window spend. The Blues spent over £300million last month on several star-studded signings, but their lavish outlay has not gone down well.
Chelsea have now spent £550m since Todd Boehly’s consortium purchased the West London club last May. They capped the January window with the British-record arrival of £107m signing Enzo Fernandez, having spent £88m on Mykhaylo Mudryk, £34m on Benoit Badiashile, £30m on Noni Madueke, in addition to a host of big-money young talent.
Premier League rivals have questioned Chelsea’s ability to spend such drastic sums of money. Man City head coach Guardiola is the latest to aim a stinging dig at the Stamford Bridge hierarchy.
Referencing clubs who angled for City to be banned from the Champions League in 2020, Guardiola has suggested that there is hypocrisy over how his club’s spending is talked about compared to Chelsea’s.
Asked about the Blues’ transfer approach, Guardiola complained: “I know what the reaction would be if we spent what Chelsea have done and other clubs but what they do is not my business. Now the market is, wow. I don’t forget the other clubs who wrote a letter to try to throw us out [of the Champions League].”
In February 2020, City were handed a two-year Champions League ban by UEFA after a lengthy investigation by the governing body’s Club Financial Control Body found the Etihad Stadium outfit guilty of falsely inflating their sponsorship revenues when submitting accounts as part of the Financial Fair Play compliance process.
However, City won an audacious appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and had their suspension overturned.
According to the Evening Standard, Chelsea are on a UEFA ‘watch list’ over their huge spending. The Blues hope that amortising their huge fees over long contract lengths will help them steer clear of punishment.
Failure to qualify for the Champions League could still see them punished, though. Graham Potter’s side are 10th in the Premier League and on Friday night they face local rivals Fulham, who defeated the Blues last month.
Chelsea now have a monstrous squad of 33 players having welcomed 16 new arrivals over the last six months. Potter said of keeping everyone happy: “I think challenge is the right word but I’m not complaining about it. It’s exciting and a test for me, of course, and the staff. But it’s an exciting one. We’ve got a lot of really good players and we have to create an environment where there is healthy competition and players can push each other.”
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