Gary Neville makes Man City spending claim compared to Man Utd, Chelsea & Premier League rivals

Gary Neville has said suggestions that Manchester City’s spending is the sole reason behind the club’s success is nonsense.

Pep Guardiola’s side are set to collect a third consecutive Premier League title on Sunday after the home clash against Chelsea, following a week in which City’s treble aspirations were boosted by a 4-0 Champions League semi-final win over Real Madrid. In the aftermath of that game, social media was awash with comments about the club’s spending, which prompted City’s CEO Ferran Sorian to defend City’s outlay on players over recent years.

“Look, you only have to look at the investment in players in England in the last year, three years, five years… we are never the club spending the most on players,” Soriano told Movistar. “There are many other clubs investing more money than us - Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal. Saying that we’ve spent a lot of money and we won because of that is just not true.”

Soriano’s stance is indeed correct, and the numbers show Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool are among the nine clubs who have outspent City in the last five years.

Meanwhile, Neville wayed in on the debate on Sunday, ahead of the Chelsea match. “I know some people sometimes focus on the other things around Manchester City, the amount of money that has been spent, but if you look at the amount of money which has been spent in the last four or five years, it hasn’t been too different than other clubs. In fact, other clubs have spent more,” he said on Sky Sports.

Arsenal’s 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Saturday means City were confirmed as  champions, and Neville reflected on the Blues’ improvement over the campaign after an underwhelming start.

“I think for the first five or six months it was a very even race between them and Arsenal. Arsenal were even in front, but it was around early March that Man City started to get into gear and perform,” he said. “You think you need to hit form in the right time of the season, and their form has been absolutely exceptional. Huge respect, congratulations to Manchester City, not just for winning this title but three on the trot.

“The performances of the players and the manager are absolutely exceptional, you have to hand it to Pep Guardiola and his players because they have achieved a really high standard in the last two or three months. There were imperfections in the first part of the season, pre-World and post-World Cup where they weren’t quite clicking and weren’t quite right. I have to say, the performances against Real Madrid, Arsenal, Bayern Munich were exceptional.

“I thought that was a really world-class game of football against Bayern Munich. Bayern played really well in that first half and City took them out. They have played some fantastic opposition and they deserve it, you can’t take that away from them because they are by far the best team in the country.”