Xabi Alonso has warned Manchester City that winning the European Cup is not just about spending a fortune, as the midfielder cited Liverpool’s 2005 triumph.
Alonso, who will play for Bayern Munich in Tuesday evening’s Group E match with Manchester City, was a member of the Rafael Benítez team that defeated Milan on penalties to win the competition nine years ago.
Sheikh Mansour has invested more than £1bn but City are facing a third elimination in four seasons at the group stage. Asked if compared to this investment Liverpool’s 2005 win illustrated more than sizeable finance was required, the 32-year-old said: “Absolutely. Football is not about mathematics. There is not a determined formula, that when you are earning more you are winning more. You are trying to buy success, but there are big surprises in football.
“And as well as that, you’ve got to do things properly and normally in football. If you do things properly, you will have success. What happened that year with Liverpool was a really a great surprise. We enjoyed it, but it was very different from what is going on Manchester City.”
Alonso is unsure why the English champions struggle in the competition. “It’s hard to tell from the outside. You expect that City will make an impact in Europe but so far they haven’t done it,” he said.
“But I’m pretty sure they’re not far away from being a big team in Europe, because season by season they are trying to improve. It looks like a very serious project to try to compete with the other top clubs in Europe and that is one of their goals.
“Even though the situation is looking difficult for them, it might all change in 90 minutes. But we have to do our job against them. I have friends at City – the manager, the staff and some of the players, so I wish them the best of luck.”
City are bottom of Group E with only two points so must defeat Bayern and Roma in the final match to retain a chance of progressing.
