Richard Keys has laid into Pep Guardiola for his spending habits insisting he would've been sacked in any other walk of life.
The Manchester City boss has been forced to defend his side's investment this week.
City registered their 20th straight win in all competitions with a 2-1 success over West Ham at the Etihad.
Ruben Dias scored the opener and has proved to be an inspired signing since joining from Benfica in the summer.
The £61m addition has helped solve City's defensive issues, but Keys has hit out at their mixed record in the transfer market.
"He's got the luxury of spending £500m before finding a centre-back. That's reckless," he said on Bein Sports.
"In any other line of business you'd be sacked some considerable time before you got to spend £500m."
City's investment has paid off though as they sit 13 points clear at the top of the Premier League.
A fourth successive Carabao Cup could also be won in April.
City remain in contention for the FA Cup and Champions League meaning they could win an unprecedented quadruple.
But Keys believes their dominance "counts for nothing" due to their reliance on finances.
Guardiola though has come out fighting this week insisting that plenty of successful clubs before them spent money.
He was asked on whether he felt they were subject to unnecessary criticism and responded by saying: "That’s come for us. I would say, we were not there, in the last 30 or 40 years playing with elite clubs.
"When United won it was because they spent more money than the other ones the same with Barcelona and Madrid.
"I don’t feel we are much different to the top elite clubs in the world in those terms but we have to accept it and do the best job we can."
