Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has become the first football manager to ever surpass the €2 billion mark for money spent on transfer fees. Following another busy summer transfer window, which saw his Premier League club spend no less than €241m on new players, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich head coach has seen his career spending on transfer fees to date now reach €2.04b.
Over the course of his 16 years as a manager, Guardiola has overseen the signing of 78 players at three different clubs. Excluding free transfers, this works out at an average of €26.1m per transfer. This, naturally, is due to the fact that the Spanish tactician has exclusively worked for some of Europe’s biggest clubs, with the deepest pockets in the game. However, the vast majority of this money spent has come during his time in England. Of the top 20 signings Guardiola has overseen, just two have come from his other two clubs in David Villa (€40m signing from Valencia) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (€69.5m signing from Inter).
This summer’s transfer activity not only saw Guardiola break the €2b mark, but also saw him overtake his long-term rival José Mourinho. Now at Serie A side Roma, the Portuguese manager has been more frugal in the transfer market in recent seasons but remains comfortably in second place with a career spend of €1.86b. Carlo Ancelotti (€1.69b), Massimiliano Allegri (€1.4b) and Diego Simeone (€1.21b) round up the top five. In stark contrast to Guardiola, domestic rivals Mauricio Pochettino, Jürgen Klopp and Unai Emery all made their own records this summer but only by breaking the €1b mark for career spending. Perhaps Illustrating the stark contrast in resources available to each Premier League manager.
Saudi Arabia’s newfound influence over the transfer market can be seen through the manner in which Al-Hilal’s manager Jorge Jesus shot up the rankings this summer, following a transfer window that saw the club spend no less than €353m on new players. Such transfer activity now takes the 69-year-old manager’s career spending to just under €920m, sitting in thirteenth place in the all-time rankings. Should the Saudi club continue their lavish spending in the years to come, Jesus could quickly find himself in the top 10.
When it comes to making money from player sales, Guardiola also ranks extremely highly among his contemporaries. Over the course of his career, the Spaniard has overseen no less than 86 player sales for a total sum of €978m. This puts the Man City manager in third place in the all-time rankings, which is somewhat surprising considering the fact that he has never had to sell a player he wanted to keep at any of his three clubs. Ahead of Guardiola is Leonardo Jardim in second place, whose career sales after stints in Portugal and an extended period at Monaco stands at €999m.
However, the manager with the most player sales ever is none other than Atlético legend Simeone, who has overseen no less than €1.13b in player sales at the LaLiga club. When we consider his aforementioned spending on player signings, it goes some way to showcase the manner in which the Argentine tactician has achieved remarkable success at the Madrid club despite more or less balancing the books in the transfer window during his time at the club.
(Transfer Market)
