Pep Guardiola says Manchester City 'don't have the money' to splurge | OneFootball

After spending nearly €350m on players since his arrival in 2016, Pep Guardiola was adamant in stating Manchester City would not be as free-flowing in the transfer market as in the past two seasons.

Guardiola discussed City’s upcoming window on Monday Night Football on Sky Sports.

“Yaya [Toure] is leaving so we have to replace him, and maybe another one,” Guardiola said, “One or two more, no more. Maybe people don’t believe me, but we don’t have the money to invest £300m (€344m) every season.”

Toure is widely rumoured to be replaced by Napoli’s Jorginho, who is alleged to be Manchester City’s top target this summer. Guardiola would be happy to have him in the team, as Pep expects a very tough season ahead.

“It’s four competitions. We need new faces to compete with the guys from this season. At Barcelona and Bayern Munich, people expect you to win, but at Manchester City, you never know,” Guardiola said. “We don’t have history behind us like other important teams and there are five or six really tough teams at the top.”

“When you look at the distance of the gap we won with and think about doing that again, it will be impossible. You think about 25 points to Liverpool, and all the other clubs, it’s unreal. And the weather conditions, the number of games, it’s quite different to Germany and Spain.”

No team has defended their Premier League title in nearly a decade, with Manchester United the last club to do so in 2009.

“For no team to [defend the title] for a long time shows how difficult it is,” he said. “The target is there but the other teams and contenders are trying too. The target is to win. It happened with Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

“I am curious how we are going to run without the ball. That is our main target. That would be a good signal if we are still a humble team with desire and show how we run back. Normally after winning you say, ‘Now I don’t run’ — this is the moment you are not going to win. We will try to focus on that next season.”