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 of those games they led and then tailed off.
It does not represent 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 knows it, too.
There is not a manager 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.’
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