Man City’s five-year net spend compared to Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd as CEO Ferran Soriano hits back at rivals - gallery

Manchester City chief Ferran Soriano has taken a shot at Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal over spending claims.

City made easy work of Real Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final with Real Madrid, and the win led to many pointing at the Citizens’ spending over recent years. Some feel City, who are one of the wealthiest clubs in the world, have essentially bought their way to what could be a treble.

But club CEO Soriano has hit back, saying: “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,” he 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.

“The Champions League is a bit symbolic. We work every day for the Premier League, it’s a very difficult tournament to win. If we do it this year, it will be the third in a row, five in six years. From my experience, I know that you cannot base all your strategy on winning the Champions League, because it depends on the draw, a bad day… but yes, when we win it, which we will do one day, it will be something symbolic.”

So, how do those claims stand up? We have rounded up the five-year net spend table, counting from the lowest spent to the highest to see where City rank compared to their rivals.