Pep Guardiola on Lionel Messi to Man City: "We spent ?40M on Jack Grealish. We paid ?100M and brought ?60M. He will wear the No.10 because we were convinced with Grealish and we were were convinced Leo would continue at Barcelona, so now, he's not in our thoughts."
Pauper Pep pulling a [MENTION=28284]Mateka[/MENTION]
Pep’s full quote gives a better picture. Pep went on to say:
But Guardiola, as a Barcelona fan and former player and manager, said: "It looked like it finished well in terms of him continuing with Barcelona.
"It was a surprise for everyone ? me included. The president was clear today. I didn't speak with the player or the president so I don't know what has happened but as a supporter of the club I would love for him to have finished, but today the club needs to be sustainable and what happened in the last year was really not good.
As a fan, I have incredible gratitude for the most extraordinary player I have seen in my life, for the titles he helped to Barcelona, to help me personally, to help me to go to Munich and then to England.
More than that, the incredible amount of feelings and actions in front of the TV and watch what he can do with the ball, with his mates in one football game.
"Day by day, game by game, every three days he made something unique. All I can say is thank you so much to bring Barcelona to another level, to allow Barcelona to dominate the world for a decade, and I wish him the best for the last few years of his career.
"He will not be forgotten. Hopefully one day we can say the best every because he deserves it. But if president Laporta arrives in this situation, he should do it unfortuantely because someone before didn't do well." (MEN)
Well said Pep.
He began by explaining the amount that player sales had realised.
One sport site stated:
Sane wasn't the only high-earner to depart last year, also David Silva, Nicolas Otamendi and Sergio Aguero. High salaries leaving.
City a club until Grealish, had never spent more than 62 million ($79m) on a single player.
City received 10m ($13.5m) Sancho's move to United because of a sell-on clause.
Angelino to RB Leipzig and Jack Harrison to Leeds United, a combined 28m ($39m), Lukas Nmechha to Wolfsburg for 7.2m ($10m).
Ivan Ilic is going to Verona for 7m ($9.7m). Yangel Herrera, Morgan Rogers and Jayden Braaf are also available and could raise 30m ($42m).
Pedro Porro was expected to make a permanent switch to Sporting for 7.5m ($10m).
Good business by City.
Figures from Goal.
