'Man Utd should have won all the titles' - Pep Guardiola says ...
Pep Guardiola has dismissed the suggestion that Manchester City’s success is down to money, saying if that was the deciding factor then Manchester United "should have won all the titles".
City are closing on a fourth straight Premier League title, needing to win their last two games against Tottenham and West Ham to finish ahead of Arsenal.
While they have been one of the biggest spending teams over the last five seasons, their net spend, according to transfermarkt, is only the seventh highest among English clubs.
Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal are among the teams with bigger net spends in that period.
City boss Guardiola says that points to the fact that City have not just bought success.
“Years ago people said it’s easy for Man City," he told reporters. "It’s boring? It’s not. It’s so difficult. But before do you know what it was? It was the money. For that reason, Man Utd should have won all the titles. All of them. And the second, Chelsea [for] all the titles. And the third Arsenal...all the titles.
“They spend as much money in last five years than us. They should be there. They are not there. For that reason Girona shouldn’t be in Champions League, and Leicester shouldn’t win the Premier League years ago. Now it’s boring? It is not boring. It’s so difficult to be here again and we want to win it.”
City are currently second in the Premier League table but can overtake Arsenal ahead of the final weekend with victory over Tottenham on Tuesday.
It was a three-horse title race until Liverpool fell away in the final weeks of the season.
While Liverpool are not going to finish with a league title in Jurgen Klopp’s final season, Guardiola says they have been “incredible” rivals.
“I saw Liverpool in the last weeks," he explained. "They could not fight with Arsenal but do you know the way they lose the chance to not fight until the end? I saw the games against [Crystal] Palace and [Manchester] United.
"The chances they missed were unbelievable. You cannot believe it. I asked: give me all the chances from Liverpool that they missed but miss it without the keeper. Nothing. They miss it. For that reason they don’t fight until the end.
“They are losers and failures? No. They are incredible, the same team that fight with us for many years. Tell me how many attacking players Liverpool have, and they didn’t score a goal and for that reason they didn’t win. It can happen.
"The important thing is Liverpool are winners because they fought for four titles being there.”
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