The reason for Pep Guardiola’s unwavering success as a manager is his hiring. The Man City manager has already had his fair share of failures. Despite managing some of the greatest players in history. Football Express examines five Guardiola signings that will go down in history for the wrong reasons.
Some of Guardiola’s and Man City worst signings
Football Express examines five Guardiola signings that will go down in history for the wrong reasons.
Martin Caceres (2008, £15m)
In 2008, £15million was a lot of money and an indication that a player worth that much would be key to a manager’s plans.
However, Martin Caceres only played for Barcelona for one season after Guardiola brought him over from Villarreal to Man City.
The Uruguayan centre defender, who only made 13 appearances before being offloaded, was the Nou Camp’s fourth choice.
With a brief stint at Southampton, of all places, in between, he spent the vast portion of his career in Italy, including at Juventus.
Claudio Bravo (2016, £15m)
One of Guardiola’s first moves after joining the club in 2016 was to replace Joe Hart with Claudio Bravo. This allowed him to fully realise his vision for the Etihad Stadium.
The goalie from Barcelona had a good reputation, and at the time, £16 million was a significant sum for a goalkeeper who was 33 years old.
He was brought in to help Guardiola and Man City establish his style because of his distribution skills. But it quickly became clear that he suffered in other areas, like saving shots.
Bravo didn’t hold the position of City’s starting goalkeeper for very long due to his attentional slip-ups; Ederson took over in a high-profile move the following summer.
Dmytro Chygrynski (2009, £22m)
Ahead of Guardiola’s second season in charge of Barcelona, he splashed a whopping £22m to sign Shakhtar Donetsk centre-back Dmytro Chygrynski.
The talks dragged on, and Guardiola was anxious to have Chygrynski join his squad at the Nou Camp.
Chygrynski left for Ukraine after finding it difficult to adjust to the Blaugrana manager’s style of play.
Barca suffered a $10 million loss.
Read More: Injured Erling Haaland publishes a 13-word Instagram message
Danilo (2017, £27m)
In Guardiola’s second summer, Man City spent out £27 million to get Danilo from Real Madrid, which also saw the acquisition of another expensive full-back (more on that shortly)…
Despite spending his whole career on the right, the Brazilian struggled in England and was frequently asked to play at left-back.
When he departed City in 2019 as part of a trade for Juventus’ Joao Cancelo, he left the team having made his biggest contribution to City.
Prior to January, Guardiola did a little bit better with his full-back acquisition.
Benjamin Mendy (2017, £52m) Worst Man City signing
By making significant investments in many full-backs during his early years as City manager, Guardiola emphasised the value of full-backs to his system.
One of them was Benjamin Mendy, who signed in 2017 after leaving AS Monaco for £52 million.
However, the Frenchman was frequently sidelined by injury and underwhelmed when he was on the field.
Mendy must rank as Guardiola’s worst-ever acquisition. His lack of value for money and the fact that he hasn’t played for City since August 2021.
Follow us on Twitter to get regular football updates.
