Pep Guardiola launches attack on big-spending Chelsea after huge January transfer window

Pep Guardiola have been left baffled to as how Chelsea were able to spend £323m during the January transfer window.

The Blues spent over £300million last month on several star-studded signings, but their lavish outlay has not gone down well.

Chelsea have now spent £550m since Todd Boehly’s consortium purchased the West London club last May. They capped the January window with the British-record arrival of £107m signing Enzo Fernandez, having spent £88m on Mykhaylo Mudryk, £34m on Benoit Badiashile, £30m on Noni Madueke, in addition to a host of big-money young talent.

Premier League rivals have questioned Chelsea’s ability to spend such drastic sums of money. Man City head coach Guardiola is the latest to aim a stinging dig at the Stamford Bridge hierarchy.

Referencing clubs who angled for City to be banned from the Champions League in 2020, Guardiola has suggested that there is hypocrisy over how his club’s spending is talked about compared to Chelsea’s.

Asked about the Blues’ transfer approach, Guardiola complained: “I know what the reaction would be if we spent what Chelsea have done and other clubs but what they do is not my business. Now the market is, wow. I don’t forget the other clubs who wrote a letter to try to throw us out [of the Champions League].”

In February 2020, City were handed a two-year Champions League ban by UEFA after a lengthy investigation by the governing body’s Club Financial Control Body found the Etihad Stadium outfit guilty of falsely inflating their sponsorship revenues when submitting accounts as part of the Financial Fair Play compliance process.