Frank Lampard warned that Coventry City must "find other ways to compete" against Manchester City's financial power, after pointing out that the Etihad Stadium club spent roughly £330million rebuilding their midfield alone this summer, almost three times Coventry's entire transfer outlay.
Coventry, playing their first Premier League season in 25 years, travel to Manchester on Saturday still searching for their first points of the campaign and will go into the game as heavy outsiders.
Lampard's side spent £125million this summer after winning promotion, while City committed about £330million to sign Enzo Fernandez, Elliot Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi. Premier League clubs spent a combined £3.46billion during the summer transfer window.
Manchester City, managed by Pep Guardiola and backed by the Abu Dhabi-owned City Football Group, have won multiple Premier League titles over the past decade and play their home games at the Etihad Stadium.
"I didn't see the spending going this way," Lampard said. "I remember sitting in the dressing room with John Terry towards the end of our Chelsea careers, wondering whether at that point if the spending would level out.
"Even back then it had gone through the roof and I didn't see it going to another level like this."
Lampard's warning to Coventry
Lampard, a former Chelsea and England midfielder who won the Premier League three times and the Champions League once during his playing career, is in his first season in charge of Coventry since they returned to the top flight. The Sky Blues were last a Premier League club in 2001, when they were relegated after 34 consecutive seasons in the division.
"It's the reality of the Premier League brand growing so much over the world and it's allowed the finances to go this way," Lampard said. "It shows the challenge ahead for us. Manchester City have spent that on their midfield and it's nearly three times our budget, so we have to find other ways to compete."
Gboho deal confirmed after window closed
Coventry added another player on Friday despite the transfer window having closed three days earlier, confirming the signing of French attacker Yann Gboho from Toulouse for a fee of about £10.3million.
The clubs had agreed the deal before deadline day, but it has taken until now for FIFA to ratify the necessary paperwork and sign off on the move. Gboho's arrival remains subject to visa approval, and he will not be involved in Saturday's match against City.
