THAT’S WHAT GUARDIOLA’S SPENT BUT YOU AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET!

RARELY will there ever be shades of grey for Pep Guardiola and he is well used to that. When you play like his teams do and when you spend money like Manchester City, you will either be a genius or something closer to the other end of the scale.

For the vast majority of this season in England, we have marvelled at Guardiola’s City team.

‘I have been a manager in the Premier League for 20 years and I can’t work out how to stop them,’ said Everton’s Sam Allardyce only a week-and-half ago.

But now, as if overnight, we question them, and whenever we do, it will almost always be with the thorny issue of money lurking in the background.

Guardiola’s world has shifted on its axis since City beat Everton 3-1. His team have since lost three times and conceded eight goals in the process. In two off those games they led and then hen tailed off.

It does not represent t a crisis and it does not even represent gross failure. However, it does open Guardiola up to examination of his methods, his coaching and his spending — and he e knows it, too.

There is not a managerager in the world who likes to boast about how much he spends. It is as if it detracts from their genius, from the mystery of the art.

Questioned on it last week, however, Guardiola was remarkably honest. Asked by a known admirer of his great rival Jose Mourinho whether two trophies — this season’s Premier League and Carabao Cup — would be a satisfactory return on City’s spend, Guardiola was quickly on the front foot.

‘I know the intention of your question but I can assure you that it’s impossible to play the way we play, the results we achieved, without top players,’ he said.

‘Today the top players cost a lot of money. So when you say, “Pep, what you have done in Barcelona or Bayern Munich, is it possible to do that without those big players?” No, it’s impossible, so be calm. We need money to buy and to play at that level all the time.

‘Maybe in the last two years we have spent more. But over an average of five or 10 years a lot of big teams spent a lot of money.

‘After that it’s down to the way we play, the idea we play. That is personal to the managers.

‘But to achieve these results you need this investment. If not, you need miracles and I am not able to provide that.’

It has been easier to warm to Guardiola this season. Last year’s almost constant mix of anxiety, agitation and irritation — at least in front of the cameras and notenotepads — has been repreplaced with an altogether gealtogether more engaging faface.

Even after Tuesday’s defeat by Liverpool, Guardiola mixed his justified criticism of Spanish rereferee Antonio Mateu LaLahoz with some recognition nitiorecognition of just how well his opponentsoppone had played. He will need some of that rational thought now, as things may get worse before they get better. The Premier League title is not secured yet and on Saturday night City play at Tottenham, a game that comes on the back of three immensely draining fixtures.

If City don’t win at Wembley — or if they do and West Brom fail to beat Manchester United the next day — the wait for the coronation will go on. While Liverpool prepare for the glamour of a Champions League semi-final in two weeks’ time, City may well clinch the title at home to Swansea on a weekend that will doubtless be dominated by two FA Cup semi-finals.

So none of this is what Guardiola and City will have wanted or imagined 10 days ago and maybe it is apposite to remind them of what they have achieved and what yet may lie ahead.

Guardiola has still overseen a spellbinding domestic campaign, one that has changed the way a lot of top-flight managers look at their tactics. The fact that only Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool dare to engage City in a proper game says everything about the way City have burrowed deep into everybody’s minds.

As for the future, well, we can be sure of more spending to add to the £450million already invested during Guardiola’s time here.

Asked last Friday if he needed better players, Guardiola said ‘no’ but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want more.

‘I think we made a step forward in terms of personality to play these kinds of games, like I never said before,’ Guardiola stressed.

‘Last season we were not able to get the feeling that we were ready to compete in Europe.

‘We are still not ready to win the Champions League but we made a step forward and in that competition there’s something special in terms of the quality of opponent and anything can happen.

‘But I think we made a magnificent group stage.’

AT this level, the margins are so fine they can go unnoticed. Liverpool have moved forwards on the back of gumption, ambition and excellence but got the rub of the green from the referee in both legs.

But if City were closer to their opponents than a 5-1 aggregate score line suggested, Guardiola has still been left in no doubt that gaps need be filled, on the field and between the ears of his players.

We wondered whether the great man was going to have everything all his own way this season and we were stupid to even countenance that. So the question came again. Are two domestic trophies really a satisfactory return on the investment made by his club in the past two seasons?