Guardiola whines about City’s January despite £80m+ investment | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has cursed Manchester City’s luck this January, despite the club sanctioning tens of millions of investment in his team in the winter transfer window.

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Speaking after Manchester City’s 3-1 defeat to Bodo/Glimt this week, Pep Guardiola suggested that everything has been going against his team since the turn of the year.

“Of course we lost and everything since the new year is against (us),” Guardiola said. “We have the feeling that everything is going wrong in many details and we have to try and change it.

“We arrived without important players and they are a little bit fragile like they were last season in a certain period.”

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Of course, it’s not true that ‘everything’ has been going against Guardiola and his team this month. After all, the club hierarchy have sanctioned two major signings in Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi.

In terms of transfer fees, City spent £62.5m on Semenyo, with a further £1.5m due in add-ons, and the potential to increase the eventual fee even more through a sell-on clause.

Guehi was cheaper at £20m, though it’s worth mentioning that fee was for just six months of the defender’s Crystal Palace contract. City could have signed him for free in the summer.

On top of that, Semenyo is believed to be earning around £150,000 a week plus bonuses. Whilst Guehi is reportedly earning less than his initial £300,000-a-week demands, with bonuses it’s probably not going to be far off the figure he wanted.

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This is all in stark contrast to what Mikel Arteta has had to deal with when he’s had injury crises at Arsenal. The Gunners desperately needed a striker last January after an injury to Gabriel Jesus, but the club did nothing and Kai Havertz ended up running himself into the ground as well.

Meanwhile, for the second January in a row, City have responded to setbacks for Guardiola’s squad by committing huge funds to new signings. As a reminder, City spent €218m (£190m) in January 2025.

Guardiola’s complaints about everything being against his team and having to play the mighty Bodo/Glimt (who were winless in Champions League history before Tuesday) without his first-choice lineup are unlikely to earn him much sympathy outside of his own fanbase.