Pep Guardiola has taken a bitter swipe at Manchester United following their Carabao Cup win over Newcastle.
The Manchester City boss has been somewhat out of sorts this season and has offered up a couple of odd rants already.
And his sarcasm was palpable when he was asked at a press conference if he thought United were now back.
“If they spend a little more money, yes,” he said. “It’s because they didn’t spend, isn’t it?”
The Red Devils had something of a splurge in the summer, spending over £200m to rebuild the team after a dismal turnout last season.
And while most would agree that United do need to bring in a few more players to reach their former heights, Guardiola’s jibe comes with more than a little irony, given his history of replacing £50m players with other £50m players at the drop of the hat.
While Man United have spent, when they get it wrong (as they have done often), they do not have the luxury of simply replacing them in six months’ time – they get stuck with them.
Besides, nobody really knows what Manchester City have actually spent in the transfer market, or how much they have been paying their playing staff. The Premier League’s investigation is certainly trying to find out, but for some reason those around the Etihad really don’t want to tell anybody…
Guardiola also had some thoughts on United’s Carabao Cup win, saying “They’re in the position they normally should be.
“When I landed here, I thought United would always be there, for the history, for everything, and Erik is doing an incredible job.
“And the players – you see how committed they are, how all together they try to do it.”
But that praise quickly gave way to another sly dig, as he added, “When you have been five or six years without winning one title…
“When we travelled to win our first Carabao Cup everyone was so excited to do it. The time we travelled there to win the cup for the fourth time in a row, it was, ‘Well, it’s OK, another one, another day in the office’.”
City winning the Carabao Cup has been a regular feature of the past decade, and Guardiola seems a little annoyed to have lost it this year.