By – Oma Akatugba, Berlin Germany
Dutch football legend, Ruud Gullit has aired his opinion on the importance of money in football.
Gullit, in an interview with Omasports at the Lauraus World Sport Awards 2020 in German capital city, Berlin, said football is the new order in football and Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola can’t be blamed for spending money to raise good teams.
In his response to questions on what he feels about opinions on the amount of money spent by the Spaniard, Gullit said;
“It was nice to inherit a good team (at Barcelona) but I think he tried to make it better. He also won the Champions League, and things like that. He came to Bayern Munich later on, Bayern won the treble and he changed the way of playing and they loved him. He didn’t win the Champions League but their way of playing left a mark at Bayern Munich. People loved the way they play.
“He has his own feelings, his own methods and of course, without good players, you can’t win anything. He went to Manchester City, they have a lot of money but of course, everyone loves their football. He is a good coach.”
Gullit, who managed Chelsea in the early 2000s said money is a very key tool in football and without it, the finest managers in the world today would never have been very successful.
“Without money, there’s no Klopp, there’s no Mourinho and there is nobody. Money is important in football. Football earns a lot of money because people love it and people want teams to win, and in order to do that, you have to spend and have that money. We have people who spend much more than him and you can’t do it without money.
“Even though he (Guardiola) buys players, maybe he buys six, he still has two not doing well. It’s also luck to get the right players. It’s not easy to buy the players you want, sometimes it doesn’t happen. It happened with Pep. The only thing Pep wanted but didn’t succeed with was to buy a good defender. He bought a lot of defenders but he was so unlucky to have those injuries to his defenders. Klopp did the right thing and Van Dijk resolves all their problems. They have defended well.”
Quizzes about his feelings on Guardiola’s next decision, at the thick of Manchester City’s two-year European ban, he said; “Guardiola may leave because the holy grail for him is the Champions League. After Barcelona he is finding a way to do it.
“He has been close but somehow he hasn’t been able to but I like Pep. He left a legacy in the way he plays and he did that in all the team he managed.”
