Guardiola’s Worst Signings as Manager Hits €1.6Bn Transfer Spending

• Pep Guardiola began his managerial career at Barcelona in 2008 and has risen to be one of the bests
• He is reputable for spending heavily on his teams and his transfer spending has hit 1.6-billion Euros
• The Spaniard has had mostly hits from his transfers but has had some ridiculous misses as well

In his 15 years as a football manager, Pep Guardiola has written his name in the history books as one of the most tactically astute and successful managers of his generation and of all-time.

He has coached three of the best teams in Europe over the last decade-and-a-half, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City, the latter of which he has managed since 2016.

He has earned a reputation as a chequebook manager because of his heavy spending, which has crossed the €1.6-billion mark, as revealed by transfer data website, Transfermarkt.

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It has not been all hits for Guardiola. Even though he has gotten it right with most of his signings, there are some top signings who defied him, as revealed by Express.

Martin Caceres (2008, £15m)

Spending £15-mil on a defender in 2008 is a lot of money and such a player should have hit the ground running, but it turned out otherwise as the Uruguayan struggled to adapt and was shipped out, as reported by All About Barcelona.

Caceres went on to have a nomadic career which included playing for clubs like Juventus, Sevilla, Lazio and Premier League club Southampton. He currently plays for LA Galaxy in MLS.

Dmytro Chygrynskiy (2009, £22m)

After the failure of Caceres, Pep spent another £22-mil on Ukrainian defender, Dmytro Chygrynskiy from Shakhtar Donetsk, as reported by CNN. He failed to adapt and was sold back to the Ukrainian Premier League club for £12-mil.

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Benjamin Mendy (2017, £52m)

At the end of his first season in England, Guardiola signed full-back, Benjamin Mendy for £52-mil from French club, AS Monaco, as reported by BBC Sports.

However, it proved to be an investment gone wrong. Mendy has not played for City since 2021 when he was charged with assault. However, he won a trophy every 22 games, as reported by talkSPORT.

Guardiola: City has small squad

Sports Brief earlier reported on Guardiola saying City has a small squad, possibly the smallest in the English Premier League.

The Spaniard has spent over €1-bil at the club and his comments may have hinted at a possible summer splash on new signings.

The comments were not well received by fans however, who told him to look inward for solutions by recruiting from the club's academy.