... Pep’s in it for long haul as he buys flat

It is the last thing Jose Mourinho and other managers will want to hear, but Pep Guardiola appears to have committed himself to Manchester City for the long term by buying a flat near the city centre.

Guardiola is halfway through the three-year contract he signed at the Etihad Stadium in July 2016 and the runaway Premier League leaders are hopeful he will sign an extension. The Catalan certainly looks ready to put down firmer roots in his adopted city. Land Registry documents reveal that he paid £2.7million in March for a flat in the City Suites complex in Salford, a short walk from Manchester city centre. He had previously rented at the complex. “I bought an apartment because I have to live somewhere, and I’m happy to live in the city,” said Guardiola yesterday.

Mourinho has been criticised by some United supporters for failing to relocate himself fully to the North West. A year-and-a-half after taking over as United manager, he still lives at the Lowry hotel in Salford with his main family home in Knightsbridge, London.

The managers’ domestic arrangements are not the only contrast. Mourinho suggested after United’s Boxing Day draw with Burnley that he will struggle to compete with his big-spending neighbours, complaining: “City buy full-backs for the price of strikers.”

City full-backs Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy and Danilo cost a combined total of more than £120 million last summer, a year after centre-back John Stones’ arrival from Everton for £47.5 million.

Guardiola, who is seeking a 19th successive league victory at Crystal Palace tomorrow, believes quality costs money and pointed out that Liverpool’s £75million purchase of Virgil van Dijk from Southampton will prove a wise investment.

“Liverpool took an amazing player. Sometimes the cheaper players are more expensive than the expensive players. If he played for six or seven years at a high level, it would be cheap. If he played not well, he would be more expensive.

“John Stones, when he came here, people said he was too expensive. Now he’s too cheap. It depends on what happens on the pitch.”