City have an academy?Apparently not.
Pep Guardiola says Emirates Marketing Project are not always able to pay high transfer fees and meet player's wage demands as the club is operating within a defined budget.
Guardiola claims City cannot afford 22 'top' players as the Premier League leaders continue to fight on four fronts.
He said: "When you want to handle four competitions sometimes you have to be lucky with injuries. Otherwise you need 22 top players for every position. People don't believe this, but today 22 top players is too expensive to buy, even [for] City.
"Their salaries we cannot pay. There are budgets for the transfers and we cannot pay. In the future, it may change but we haven't paid more than £80m-£100m for one player. We cannot pay that right now, it is the truth.
"That's why we need the academy to fight. Of course, we spend a lot money but it is the same money as a lot of other teams. I can assure you we are not the only team in the world that spend money."
http://www.skysports.com/football/n...as-been-restrained-by-manchester-citys-budget
I find it quite offensive really - totally detached from reality. How about doing what most managers (excluding the obvious of course) have to do and work with what you have, within a real budget. Why should City be able to just hoover up 22 top players? Show some true management ability. It's not as if he currently has a squad of hoof-about has-beens.