Manchester City chief Ferran Soriano has launched an attack on Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United amid suggestions that the club are only successful because they've spent more money than others. The Cityzens have been subject to plenty of criticism for their spending power over the years.
In fact, in February, City were charged by the Premier League over several financial breaches across nine seasons (2009/10 to 2017/18) following a four-year investigation. For now, it still remains to be seen whether any of these breaches will be upheld by the commission or if any punishment will follow.
In the meantime, Pep Guardiola has not let the outside noise affect his players with City going from strength to strength. The Spaniard booked the club a place in the Champions League final after bulldozing past Real Madrid in the semi-final.
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City look well-positioned to defend their Premier League crown and they're also set to meet Manchester United in the FA Cup final on June 3. With a treble well and truly on the cards, many have taken aim at the club's controversial spending power once again.
Speaking to Movistar following CIty's win over Real Madrid on Wednesday night, Soriano issued a stanch defence of the club. As quoted by the Metro, the City CEO said: "Look, you only have to look at the investment in players in England in the last year, three years, five years… we are never the club spending the most on players.
"There are many other clubs investing more money than us – Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal. Saying that we’ve spent a lot of money and we won because of that is just not true."
According to Transfermarkt, over the last ten years, Chelsea have spent far more than any other club in Europe (£1.82billion), City second as much (£1.5bn), United third (£1.45bn) and Arsenal seventh (£1.04bn). When quizzed on what it would mean to win the Champions League, Soriano added: "The Champions League is a bit symbolic.
"We work every day for the Premier League, it’s a very difficult tournament to win. If we do it this year, it will be the third in a row, five in six years.
"From my experience, I know that you cannot base all your strategy on winning the Champions League, because it depends on the draw, a bad day… but yes, when we win it, which we will do one day, it will be something symbolic."
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