We Have To Replace Yaya Toure – Pep Guardiola

Pep Guardiola has said Manchester City won’t match their spending of the past two summers with just one or two players set to arrive before the new season.

“Yaya is leaving so we have to replace him, and maybe another one,” Guardiola said on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football. “One or two more, no more. Maybe people don’t believe me, but we don’t have the money to invest £300m every season.”

When asked where else he would consider adding players, Guardiola suggested up front.

“We have to think and talk more with Txiki [Begiristain, the director of football] and the staff,” he said. “It’s four competitions. We need new faces to compete with the guys from this season.”

“At Barcelona and Bayern Munich, people expect you to win, but at Manchester City, you never know,” Guardiola said. “We don’t have history behind us like other important teams and there are five or six really tough teams at the top.

“When you look at the distance of the gap we won with and think about doing that again, it will be impossible. You think about 25 points to Liverpool, and all the other clubs, it’s unreal. And the weather conditions, the amount of games, it’s quite different to Germany and Spain.”

“For no team to [defend the title] for a long time shows how difficult it is,” he said. “The target is there but the other teams and contenders are trying too. The target is to win. It happened with Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

“I am curious how we are going to run without the ball. That is our main target. That would be a good signal if we are still a humble team with desire and show how we run back. Normally after winning you say, ‘Now I don’t run’ — this is the moment you are not going to win. We will try to focus on that next season.”