Ferran Soriano has taken aim at Manchester City’s Premier League rivals Manchester United for their revolving door policy when it comes to managers.
City lifted the treble under Pep Guardiola last term - just the third boss to have been appointed by the club’s Abu Dhabi owners since completing a takeover at the Etihad Stadium. That perceived loyalty has seen Man City put together a period of unprecedented success.
Since Roberto Mancini’s arrival at the club, they have won 20 major trophies - the vast majority of those coming under the stewardship of Guardiola. The Spaniard also managed to lead the club to an historic treble, matching the achievements of the Red Devils in 1999.
United have not come close to experiencing that type of success. United have burned through five managers and more than £1.4 billion in the transfer market in the decade since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in order to restore themselves to their former glory.
The likes of David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick have all come and gone. There were a few trophies claimed in that time - one FA Cup under Van Gaal, whilst Mourinho claimed the League Cup and Europa League.
That huge spending in the market alongside huge packages of compensation paid to outgoing managers has not gotten the Red Devils anywhere near matching the achievements of their neighbours. It has also seen the club’s debt under the Glazers grow to £725 million.
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Soriano has taken aim at United for their seemingly erratic decisions when it comes to how they spend their money and the position of their managers.
He said: “How many coaches did we have in the last 10 years? Two - Manuel Pellegrini and Pep Guardiola. How many football directors? One -Txiki Begiristian. Part of the success is to be consistent and resilient and not panicking when we lose.
“I've seen at City when going to breakfast the morning after the games we have lost and it’s like a funeral and people are really p***ed off. That's when you have to show resilience but also intelligence to think ‘today is not the day to make decisions'. This is part of the reason why we have been successful in the last decade.”
Soriano added: “Other people take decisions based on emotions. We take conscious decisions and we take time to think about it.
“A little joke inside the group is we say ‘no decisions on Mondays’ because you might be affected by the result at the weekend. We can lose games - significant games - and we say we can be very sad and angry for 24 hours.”
City twice got the better of their fierce rivals during the 2022/23 campaign. They finished 14 points clear of the Red Devils in the Premier League, whilst also beating them in the FA Cup final.
