Mourinho vs Guardiola: Who has spent the most?

Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola have fought for football's top honours for over a decade. Despite the distance now between them, there's still a war waging between the two over who has spent more money in the transfer market - and who has spent it most wisely.

The pair were ensconced in arguably the greatest club rivalry the game has ever seen between 2010 and 2012, when they were in charge of Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively. Each Clasico was an event in itself, with tensions ratcheted up to heights barely seen in Spanish football before.

Without these head-to-head encounters, fans are now seeking to compare the two by their transfer deeds. And there are some huge numbers to digest.

How much has Mourinho spent in his career?

Mourinho - during his time in charge of eight clubs - has spent 1.684 billion euros to date in his career. His time at Chelsea was responsible for the largest share of that outlay, at 766m euros.

He also splashed out considerable sums while at Manchester United on the likes of Romelu Lukaku (85m euros) and Paul Pogba (105m euros).

That hasn't prevented Mourinho sitting on his high horse at times over the years, though.

"At Tottenham we believe in Financial Fair Play," he said in 2020 while in charge of the North London club.

"That's why I believe that [Lionel] Messi could only go to a club that doesn't respect its rules."

He even spoke about Manchester City being allowed back into the Champions League after they were reported to have broken FFP rules.

"It was a shameful decision," Mourinho said.

"If they aren't guilty, they shouldn't be fined. But if they are guilty then the decision is a disgrace and they should be kicked out."

What about Guardiola's spending?

Guardiola has spent 1.588bn euros in his career so far, with 1bn euros of that coming at Manchester City alone.

He came nowhere near spending anything like that sum of money while at Barcelona or Bayern Munich, with outlays of 342m and 204m euros respectively.

The Mourinho and Guardiola war of words

Mourinho took another swipe at Guardiola while at United, on this matter of spending.

"You can be a rich club and sign the best players, but you can't sign the whole class," the Portuguese said.

Guardiola countered back.

"I don't think we've been disrespectful, that wasn't our intention," he said.

"We are club that wants to grow and win trophies."

Their 2021 business

The two haven't stopped their transfer dealings this summer.

Mourinho has signed the likes of Tammy Abraham and Rui Patricio for his new team Roma, while Guardiola has brought in Jack Grealish for a whopping 117m euros.

And if the Catalan signs Harry Kane in what's left of the summer window, he would likely usurp Mourinho's total career spend.