Pep Guardiola rather surprisingly took aim at former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger during his press conference on Tuesday.
City saw their ban from Europe's premier competition lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday morning after they were deemed not to have flouted UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations.
Guardiola’s side will now be able to compete in Europe without restrictions after an appeal to CAS has returned.
The former Barcelona boss didn’t hold back when asked in his press conference about the charges being dropped.
And after taking aim at some of his side’s Premier League rivals over their actions towards the charges against his club, he then took aim at Wenger, who has been a big advocate of Financial Fair Play in the past
"We have a lot of money, but we wanted Alexis Sanchez and we could not afford it," Guardiola said.
"We wanted Harry Maguire and we could not afford it. We could not pay like United paid.
"So we have money, but the other clubs have money too. We spend in the last decade more than we did in the past, yes, but 20, 25, 30 years ago, Arsene Wenger — the guy who defends perfectly Financial Fair Play… so Arsene, you know that Manchester City was correct with what we have done — spent a lot of money to be there.
"United with Sir Alex Ferguson spent a lot of money to be there. All the clubs, if you want to be on top, all the clubs (spend); if you don’t, it’s more difficult."
Back in 2015, in relation to City and French giants Paris Saint-Germain having their restrictions on spending and Champions League squad size lifted, Wenger admitted that those two clubs were successful in their efforts to overturn the decisions made because of their financial backing.
The Frenchman said: "The clubs threatened to go to civil court - not only through sports [courts]. That brought a lot of insecurity in the decision making and Uefa so they started to soften the rules all a little bit.
"The last decision in July was about Paris Saint-Germain and then Manchester City and that opened completely the door."
