Pep in credit and doing it for pride to save City

PEP GUARDIOLA says he has made far too much money for Manchester City to worry about the financial consequences of Champions League humiliation tonight.

- Simon Mullock

For the City manager, the must-win game against Club Brugge is about kudos rather than cash.

Failure to beat the Belgians would see the four-in-a-row Premier League champions dumped out in the league phase.

It would cost Guardiola's club a minimum of about £10million - after they budgeted to be in the last 16 at the very least. The bottom line for Guardiola is rescuing City's floundering season on the pitch as he faces up to the biggest crisis of his managerial career.

Guardiola said: "I don't know about the finances. I didn't speak with my CEO about that.

"In the last two, three or four years we have always made money in the transfer windows and they always say that the budget is positive. Of course, I'm not naive enough to not know how important it is financially for the club to go through in this competition.

"We want to try to go through - but especially for sporting reasons.