Pep Guardiola’s clubs have splashed out £1.75BILLION on signings during his illustrious career but he’s delivered the silverware… so how do Mourinho, Klopp, Pochettino and other top bosses compare in the money-per-trophy stakes?
- Pep Guardiola has won 37 trophies during his coaching career, but has spent big
- We compared 10 leading bosses by looking at the cost of each trophy they won
- Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport’s podcast It’s All Kicking Off!
It is the age-old football debate – would that trophy-winning manager be as successful without the vast riches that have been spent on his team?
Surely it is far easier to win domestic and European silverware when your owner is more than happy to write the big cheques for the best players?
After Transfermarkt published an interesting graphic showing the amount spent on transfer fees during the careers of 10 leading managers, we decided to test the theory.
It showed that Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola had spent around £1.75billion on new players during the course of his illustrious coaching career, which also included his time with Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
Jose Mourinho, now the Roma boss, wasn’t too far behind in the spending stakes on £1.6bn, while Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti was on £1.45bn.
Pep Guardiola with the European Cup after Manchester City’s Champions League success last season – he has spent big in the transfer market, but reliably delivers success
Guardiola achieved success in his first job at Barcelona and that has continued at Bayern Munich and Manchester City in the years since
Transfermarkt compared 10 leading managers by the amount of money spent on new players
Indeed, eight of the 10 had spent over £1bn in transfer fees during the course of their time in the dug-out.
We took the information and cross-checked it against each manager’s trophy record to calculate the amount of money spent per trophy won.
For the sake of argument, all trophies won by each manager – including ones such as the Community Shield and Spanish Supercopa – have been included.
Your browser does not support iframes.
PEP GUARDIOLA – £47.3m per trophy
£1.75bn spend; 37 trophies
No question who has won the most trophies on this list – Guardiola has achieved considerable success with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and now Manchester City, who have just won the Treble.
He has, however, been backed with plenty of cash. Less so at Barcelona, whose brilliant team had an academy-produced core, and Bayern, who spent relatively modestly in his three years there.
But since arriving at Abu Dhabi-backed City, Guardiola has been backed to the tune of £1.27bn to build an all-conquering team.
That he has done, with City dominating the domestic scene in England in recent seasons and finally cracking the Champions League.
It all works out at £47.3m a trophy which, as we’ll see, is very good value!
Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland are two of the big money signings at City under Guardiola
JOSE MOURINHO – £61.2m per trophy
£1.6bn spend; 26 trophies
Mourinho has also enjoyed an illustrious career in management, though Guardiola has pulled conclusively clear of him in the trophy count in recent times.
The clubs the ‘Special One’ has worked for have splashed out an eye-watering £1.6bn on new signings.
He benefitted from Roman Abramovich’s billions as they worked together to establish Chelsea as a force in the Premier League.
But his time at Manchester United between 2016 and 2018 saw extravagant spending on the likes of Paul Pogba (£89m), Romelu Lukaku (£75m) and Fred (£47m).
Successful at most clubs he’s been at, Mourinho comes in at just over £60m a trophy.
Jose Mourinho with the UEFA Europa League following Manchester United’s triumph in 2017
CARLO ANCELOTTI – £55.7m per trophy
£1.45bn spend; 26 trophies
The Italian has achieved success wherever he’s been, whether it’s AC Milan, Chelsea, Bayern Munich or two spells with Real Madrid.
Ancelotti is as close as you’ll get to a Champions League specialist, having lifted Europe’s main prize on four occasions.
His time with Real has featured some hefty spending – Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez first time around, then Aurelien Tchouameni and Jude Bellingham during this spell.
But the less said about £50m flop Fernando Torres at Chelsea, the better.
His trophy count is identical to Mourinho’s but Ancelotti represents better value for money.
Carlo Ancelotti is the master of winning the Champions League – with four successes
MASSIMILIANO ALLEGRI – £92.3m per trophy
£1.2bn spend; 13 trophies
Allegri has never coached outside of Italy but he’s certainly been successful there, winning one Scudetto with AC Milan and five with Juventus.
Juve certainly were a financial powerhouse in Italian football and that enabled the £105m signing of Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid in 2018.
The likes of Gonzalo Higuain and Dusan Vlahovic didn’t come cheap either, making Allegri’s pounds-per-trophy figure of £92.3m fairly expensive.
Massimiliano Allegri with the Serie A trophy following Juventus’s league success in 2019
DIEGO SIMEONE – £104m per trophy
£1.04bn spend; 10 trophies
During 12 years at Atletico Madrid, Simeone has done his best to bloody the nose of Spain’s big two and that has amounted to a couple of LaLiga titles, as well as two Champions League final defeats to Real.
Even to do that, Atletico have needed to spend over a billion pounds with Joao Felix their most expensive purchase at £113m.
It means Simeone comes in at a touch over £100m per piece of silverware during his coaching career.
Atletico Madrid lift LaLiga in 2021, the second of their league triumphs under Diego Simeone
MANUEL PELLEGRINI – £93.7m per trophy
£1.03bn spend; 11 trophies
Pellegrini is best known for winning the second of Manchester City’s league titles in 2014, as well as two League Cups, but he had picked up plenty of silverware in South America prior to that.
He’s another to have spent over a billion, with his most notable purchase being that of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid for £80m in 2009, just a few weeks after his appointment.
Of course the Galactico policy at the Bernabeu – which meant decisions over signings were taken above his head – didn’t suit Pellegrini, who memorably said: ‘It’s no good having an orchestra with the 10 best guitarists if I don’t have a pianist.’
He didn’t last long there and comes in at £93.7m per piece of silverware.
Manuel Pellegrini and his captain Vincent Kompany celebrate Man City’s 2014 title win
THOMAS TUCHEL – £102m per trophy
£1.02bn spend; 10 trophies
Tuchel is regarded as a fine tactical innovator and he’s been pretty successful, winning the Champions League with Chelsea and two league titles at Paris Saint-Germain.
A good chunk of his £1bn-plus outlay was the 2018 signing of Kylian Mbappe by PSG for £166m.
But Tuchel was also Chelsea boss when they paid £97.5m for Romelu Lukaku in 2021 and still at Stamford Bridge when Todd Boehly started his £1bn trolley dash last year.
Now Bayern Munich’s coach, they’ve just spent £100m on Harry Kane! Tuchel could be Mr Big Spender and it’s over £100m per pot won.
Thomas Tuchel won Chelsea their second Champions League, beating Man City in 2021
ANTONIO CONTE – £112.2m per trophy
£1.01bn spend; 9 trophies
It may not have worked out for Conte in his last employment at Tottenham, but the Italian has a good track record, winning league titles with Juventus, Chelsea and Inter Milan.
He is another to have a £1bn spend on his record. That came to a large extent at Chelsea where he signed the likes of Alvaro Morata, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Michy Batshuayi.
But his most expensive purchase was Lukaku, who moved from Man United to Inter in 2019 for £68m. They made a tidy profit when he was sold on to Chelsea two years later.
Conte comes in at a pretty expensive £112m per trophy won.
Antonio Conte lifts the Premier League trophy after a successful first season at Chelsea
MAURICIO POCHETTINO – £329.7m per trophy
£989m spend; 3 trophies
Those who like to mock Tottenham will see where this is going straight away but don’t forget Pochettino did win Ligue 1, the Coupe de France and the Trophee des Champions at PSG.
His most expensive signing at Spurs was midfielder Tanguy Ndombele, who cost £55m plus add-ons but failed to make much impact. At PSG, right-back Achraf Hakimi cost him £51.3m.
But if you were to plot this on a graph, the massive spike at the end reflects the huge sums Boehly has spent since Pochettino was appointed back in the summer.
Moises Caicedo, at £115m, is the biggest one but then there’s Romeo Lavia, Christopher Nkunku (a deal agreed before Pochettino arrived) and Cole Palmer.
So, Pochettino could do with winning a few more trophies to bring down his staggering £329.7m per-trophy ratio.
Mauricio Pochettino ended his long wait to win a trophy when he went to Paris Saint-Germain
JURGEN KLOPP – £81m per trophy
£971m spend; 12 trophies
Klopp was successful in Germany with Borussia Dortmund and that has continued at Liverpool, where he won them a sixth Champions League and ended a 30-year league title drought.
All of his expensive player purchases have come at Anfield as the Reds have strived to keep pace with Man City in recent years.
Virgil van Dijk at £75m and Darwin Nunez, for an initial £64m, are his most expensive, and cumulatively it is approaching £1bn for his coaching career.
However, when you factor in the silverware won, Klopp’s figure of £81m per trophy is very respectable indeed.
Jurgen Klopp can’t disguise his delight as Liverpool end a three-decade wait for the league title
IT’S ALL KICKING OFF!
It’s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.
It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.
Your browser does not support iframes.
Source: Read Full Article
