{"id":420132,"date":"2026-02-11T15:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/420132\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T15:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:45:11","slug":"stefan-borson-disagrees-with-pep-guardiola-over-man-citys-spending-amid-crude-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/420132\/","title":{"rendered":"Stefan Borson disagrees with Pep Guardiola over Man City’s spending amid ‘crude’ claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pep<\/p>\n

(Credit: Imago\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\"James <\/p>\n

Wed 11 February 2026 11:51, UK <\/p>\n

Manchester City have spent heavily on rebuilding their squad at the Etihad Stadium over the past year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FIFA\u2019s\u00a0Global Transfer Report<\/a>\u00a0has revealed\u00a0Man City\u00a0spent the most money on international transfers<\/a> across European clubs in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile,\u00a0Man City signed Antoine Semenyo for \u00a364million<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Bournemouth<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Marc Guehi<\/a> in a \u00a320m deal from\u00a0Crystal Palace<\/a>\u00a0in the latest January transfer window.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking in a press conference last week, Pep Guardiola<\/a> brought up Man City<\/a>\u2019s net spend over the past five years. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am a little bit sad and upset because in net spend the last five years we are seventh in the Premier League,\u201d said the Catalan boss. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be the first, I don\u2019t understand why the club don\u2019t spend more money. I am a little bit grumpy with them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

MORE FOOTBALL INSIDER STORIES<\/p>\n

How Man City have balanced out heavy spending<\/p>\n

Former\u00a0Man City\u00a0financial adviser\u00a0Stefan Borson<\/a>\u00a0exclusively told\u00a0Football Insider\u00a0Man City have \u201cspent a fortune\u201d when discussing Guardiola\u2019s claims about net spend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret Man City have sold several young players for a profit<\/a> in recent years, boosting their net-spend figures. <\/p>\n

Speaking exclusively to\u00a0Football Insider,\u00a0Borson\u00a0said:\u00a0\u201cWell, Pep\u2019s being sarcastic, but net spend is not the way to look at it anyway. I mean, you can argue it every which way, so there\u2019s no question City have spent a fortune.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s right to suggest that City haven\u2019t been one of the biggest spenders in the game, and net spend is a pretty crude way of looking at things. Partly because it depends on what your squad looks like when you go into the five-year period and what assets you\u2019ve got to sell on the day just before the five-year period starts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PepCredit: Imago<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, if you\u2019ve got 15 players that you can ship out on the first day of the five-year period, then of course your net spend is going to look great. Then furthermore with City, the numbers are obviously flattered by youth players that many of which have never played for the first team. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of irrelevant whether City\u2019s academy happened to have let\u2019s say \u00a3100m of quality that you could sell, so I don\u2019t really buy the argument that this is just a net-spend discussion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why Pep Guardiola should ignore talk around Man City\u2019s spending<\/p>\n

Borson insisted Guardiola shouldn\u2019t pay attention to what people are saying about Man City\u2019s spending over the years. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think City and Pep should be unbothered by people talking about spend, gross spend, net spend, whatever,\u201d said Borson. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were to look at all of the teams at the top of the table, they\u2019ve all spent very heavily over the last few years, all within a relatively close level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ManCredit: Imago<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are four or five of them that are approaching \u00a31billion of spend over the last few years, and it\u2019s just one of those things really.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to look at wage bills, you\u2019ve got to look at gross spend, you\u2019ve got to look at what your overall return is for that spend.\u201d <\/p>\n

Man City have won 18 trophies since Guardiola arrived at the Etihad in 2016, while he is looking to add to that total this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For more Man City and exclusive news, follow us on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0or join our brand new\u00a0WhatsApp Channel<\/a>\u00a0for instant updates to be sent straight to your phone. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credit: Imago\/Getty Images) Wed 11 February 2026 11:51, UK Manchester City have spent heavily on rebuilding their squad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,399,19404,101,154914,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-420132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-manchester-city","tag-pep-guardiola","tag-sports","tag-stefan-borson","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}