Pep Guardiola adamant Manchester United ‘should have won all the titles’ for one clear reason

Pep Guardiola has claimed that Manchester United should have won all the Premier League titles in recent years if money was the determining factor.

While United are languishing in eighth place in the table, Manchester City are two wins away from securing a record fourth consecutive English title and Guardiola hit back at suggestions their dominance is boring and rejected accusations his side have bought success.

Guardiola argued it is tough to win as much as City are as he drew upon net-spend statistics showing that Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal are the biggest buyers in recent years.

Over the last five seasons, according to transfermarkt, City’s net spend of £259m is only the seventh highest among English clubs, even if they did have the largest wage bill last year and they began that period already owning players of the class of Kevin de Bruyne, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Ederson and Bernardo Silva.

However, while City have bought footballers of the calibre of Erling Haaland, Ruben Dias and Rodri since the summer of 2019 and made Jack Grealish the first £100m signing in Premier League history, they have also sold for profits and made fewer failed signings than some other clubs.

Their neighbours at Old Trafford have paid out some £400m in transfer fees in Erik ten Hag’s two-year reign alone and have a net spend of £619m over five seasons while Chelsea, who have committed more than £1bn for new signings under the ownership of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, have a net spend of £660m.

Arsenal’s is the third biggest, with Tottenham, Newcastle and Aston Villa next in that particular chart as Guardiola claimed City have not bought success.

He said: “Years ago people said it’s easy for Man City. It’s boring? It’s not. It’s so difficult. But before do you know what it was? It was the money. For that reason, Man United should have won all the titles. All of them. And the second, Chelsea [for] all the titles. And the third Arsenal... all the titles.

“They spend as much money in last five years than us. They should be there. They are not there. For that reason Girona shouldn’t be in Champions League, and Leicester shouldn’t win the Premier League years ago. Now it’s boring? It is not boring. It’s so difficult to be here again and we want to win it.”

Guardiola also came to the defence of Liverpool, his most persistent rivals for trophies during his time in England. Jurgen Klopp’s last title challenge ended in April but the City boss insisted the German’s team are not losers.

He explained: “I saw Liverpool in the last weeks. They could not fight with Arsenal but do you know the way they lose the chance to not fight until the end? I saw the games against [Crystal] Palace and [Manchester] United. The chances they missed were unbelievable. You cannot believe it. I asked: give me all the chances from Liverpool that they missed but miss it without the keeper. Nothing. They miss it. For that reason they don’t fight until the end.

“They are losers and failures? No. They are incredible, the same team that fight with us for many years. Tell me how many attacking players Liverpool have, and they didn’t score a goal and for that reason they didn’t win. It can happen. The important thing is Liverpool are winners because they fought for four titles being there.”