Try to stop City on the pitch, Jose, not off it...
PEP GUARDIOLA is said to be growing increasingly frustrated by Manchester City’s failures in the transfer market. Cue eye-rolling sequence now, not least as Guardiola is currently marshalling the most expensively assembled squad in Europe.
Yet he has a point. If City miss out on Ajax midfielder Frenkie de Jong, to Paris Saint-Germain or Barcelona, that will represent the fourth major transfer to slip by in less than a year.
one, Jorginho, was victorious against Guardiola on Saturday for Chelsea. Previously, in the last January transfer window, Alexis Sanchez went to Manchester United, who claimed another City target, Fred, in the summer.
There were also reports that negotiations for Fabinho were advanced prior to him plumping for liverpool, and Virgil van dijk was previously cited as the man to bolster City’s defence. Either way, it’s quite a list; one that doesn’t entirely support the idea that City have bought the league and need restraining.
This is what Jose Mourinho would like us to think because it explains, in part, United’s slide to the margins, and places greater pressure on UEFA to act against City over financial fair play. Kudos to Mourinho, though, for at least admitting what FFP has become in the eyes of its elite supporters.
It is the means by which City will be controlled, the means by which they can be beaten, given that a defeat by legal paperwork is far simpler to achieve than
turning in the defensive performance of the season, as Chelsea had to on Saturday.
‘If they stop, or Financial Fair Play makes them stop, then we can close the gap a little bit better,’ said Mourinho last week. And there it is. FFP, quite nakedly, is now being used to limit the ambitions and potential of upstart interlopers.
It is not there for the likes of United, whose financial advantages mean they can continue throwing good money after bad without ever attracting the attention of David Gill’s friends at UEFA.
It is there to stop City, so that United can be the best team again, can make even more money, and pull further away from the regulations that are in place to thwart any inferior with the dream of taking them on.
Not so long ago, Mourinho was bemoaning the fact that United could no longer swipe Tottenham’s best players, unlike the good old days of Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov. ‘Is Manchester United bigger than Tottenham? I think everybody would say yes,’ argued Mourinho. ‘Can you buy Tottenham’s best players? No, they don’t sell. They are so powerful that they can say no. Can we bring Harry Kane? Dele Alli? Christian Eriksen? Son Heung-min? No. So who is more powerful now?’
HE has been saying this for several years: that the money in the Premier League has made the smaller teams more independent, and given them greater spending power, too.
Yet if United can no longer solve their problems by plundering Tottenham that means City cannot either. They bought Kyle Walker because they made an offer that was irresistible, and Mauricio Pochettino believed he had right backs to spare. But United could have matched it, easily, and stayed within budget — just as they outbid City for Sanchez and Fred.
From Blackburn to Chelsea, when a new club muscles in there are always claims that the league is being bought. Yet City still do not have a defender as expensive as Van Dijk, a midfielder as expensive as Paul Pogba, or a striker as costly as Romelu Lukaku. Even Ederson, their goalkeeper, is half the price of Kepa Arrizabalaga at Chelsea.
A list of the world’s most expensive signings stretches to 16 names before City appear as a buying club, by which time Liverpool and Chelsea have appeared once each and United three times.
It was the same with Blackburn. Far from buying the league, in 1995 they were blown out of the water financially by Liverpool for Jason McAteer, then of Bolton Wanderers. Yet nobody accused Liverpool manager Roy Evans of buying the league because, ultimately, he fell short. To buy the league, a club first has to win it.
Then a panel of self-appointed experts decide whether this is the type of club that should be on top, and pass judgement accordingly. If Liverpool win a first Premier League this season they will have bought it as sincerely as any former champion because the investment in Van Dijk, Mo Salah, Alisson — in fact in every member of the starting XI bar Trent Alexander-Arnold and to a lesser extent Joe Gomez — will have been absolutely vital. And fair enough, that is how football has always been. Yet Liverpool are long- standing members of the established elite, so their investment will be perceived as the right kind. It is only City that need stopping.
Yet do they? If City lose out on De Jong, particularly if his eventual destination is Barcelona — and his father is certainly pushing that move — it will once again illustrate that the power, prestige, reputation and wealth of the traditional super clubs can still trump new money. That City are trying, and failing, in the transfer market should therefore be a source of encouragement to their rivals.
Instead, Mourinho insists they can only be defeated by the UEFA rulebook. Saturday’s result, not to mention the league table, would rather suggest otherwise.