Coach doesn’t want any new arrivals
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VfL Bochum, Holstein Kiel, 1. FC Heidenheim, Manchester City – these are the teams from the top leagues with the fewest points from the last ten competitive games. Since the end of October, Man City have won a single game, drawn twice and lost seven times. Coach Pep Guardiola has suffered as many defeats in the past eight weeks as he did in the entire last season. He himself locates the problem in the many failures that are causing problems for the Citizens. That’s why the six-time champion coach doesn’t want any new players – even though there is money for them.
On Friday, Man City announced a club and league record turnover of £715m and a profit of £73.8m from last season. Also mentioned in the report is the figure of 139 million pounds, almost 170 million euros, that was earned from player transfers. In the current season it is already more than 140 million euros after the departures of Julián Alvarez, João Cancelo and Taylor Harwood-Bellis, among others.
Money that, according to English media reports, could definitely be reinvested directly into the squad. Unless Man City gets into legal problems. A verdict from the independent panel assessing the Premier League’s 130 charges of possible breaches of financial rules is expected in the near future. But in particular the proclaimed number of transfer revenues – according to City’s financial report, 405 million pounds in the last five seasons – is seen by the portal “The Athletic” as a sign that everything could run economically according to the rules in Manchester. And that the plan is to extensively rebuild the squad for next season.
Guardiola is against new signings: “Wants my players back”
Despite the unprecedented crisis at the series champions, coach Guardiola doesn’t believe in new players in the coming winter transfer window. “What I want is to have my players back,” the Spaniard dismissed a question during the press conference on Friday before the city derby against Man United (Sunday, 5:30 p.m.). Guardiola complains about several central defender failures. World footballers Rodri and Phil Foden will also be sorely missed. “I would really like to compete with the squad we had at the beginning of the season.” He regrets that these players are not there. “But we have them and don’t need new ones.”
Guardiola also downplays the figures from the financial report. He congratulated the club on the good result. But that doesn’t mean “that we have huge resources and can buy whatever we want, especially when you see how expensive the transfer market is.”