Manchester United fans have hit back at the media after rivals City completed the £57 million signing of defender Aymeric Laporte.
The Citizens completed the club record signing of Laporte from La Liga side Athletico Madrid yesterday afternoon.
The money spent on the Frenchman takes City’s spend on defenders to over £230 million since the summer of 2016 when Pep Guardiola took over.
Amongst those the club have signed over the past 18-months are £45 million Kyle Walker, £52 million Benjamin Mendy (a world record fee for a defender up until Virgil Van Dijk’s £75 million Liverpool move earlier this month), as well as both Danilo and John Stones who cost in excess of £55 million combined.
Pep Guardiola has already responded to critics of his huge spending, saying: “I understand the criticism, but we have spent £300m on six players.
“Others have done it on two. We had a lot of older players out of contract. To compete we needed to spend. A club can decide to spend on two players. We did it in a different way.
“We understand the inflation of the market. We have spent on six players and others have done it in one or two. We accept criticism, but more important is that they play well.”
United fans will take no comfort in that apology. The Red Devils have been heavily criticised in the media as of late after completing the signing of Alexis Sanchez and paying the Chile international a reported £500,000 per week.
However, the United faithful think that criticism in unfairly justified given their rival’s recent spending patterns …
https://twitter.com/UnitedStandMUFC/status/956089738183806976
https://twitter.com/MrFutboy/status/957012275134652417
Ederson £34.7 million
Walker £50 million
Stones £50 million
Laporte £60 million
Mendy £50 million
Manchester City could spend £244.7 million on a back 4 and a goalkeeper.
But the media would have you believe Man United are ruining football with money.
Absolute joke. pic.twitter.com/lEuQ2FjCN6
— Diarmuid Gillingham (@ThisIsDiarmuid) January 23, 2018
Prices paid by Manchester City just on defenders:
Eliaquim Mangala: £35M
Nicolas Otamendi: £40M
John Stones: £50M
Kyle Walker: £50M
Benjamin Mendy: £52M
Danilo: £30M
Aymeric Laporte: £60M
Total: £317M
And Manchester United are ruining football? #MUFC pic.twitter.com/XswvXcED2W— MUFC_Source_ (@MUFC_Source_) January 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/utdxtra/status/957395720633573377
https://twitter.com/UnitedStandMUFC/status/956209049892253696
City sign Laporte for £57m. No doubt the press will be saying what a great signing he is and is perfect for Pep/ City but if United were signing him then all we’d be hearing is ‘£57m for a CB who’s never played in this league is a risk’ or ‘R.I.P Tuanzebe’s United career.’
— Retro United (@Retro_Utd) January 30, 2018
For Pep to say City couldn't afford a deal for Alexis & then to pay that deal for Laporte a CB is hilarious. Man is never criticised in the media, free pass.
— A D A M (@UnitedObsessed) January 30, 2018
57million for laporte and apparently United are ruining football 😂😂city been ruining it since 2008
— Kamran (@kamranioo) January 30, 2018
https://twitter.com/andykeating/status/958042792546242560
https://twitter.com/bencwilliams_/status/958011236276408321