Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has hit back at Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp's claim the Premier League champions operate on a transfer "fantasy island".
Klopp named City, along with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, as teams who can carry on spending millions seemingly regardless of UEFA's Financial Fair Play restrictions.
"It looks like there are four clubs in the world who can do it constantly. Madrid, Barcelona, City and PSG. Whatever they need, they do," Klopp had said.
City and Liverpool meet on Sunday in the Community Shield, the curtain raiser for the English top-flight season.
And Guardiola lit the fuse on the early clash between the two teams who are likely to slug it out for the Premier League title when he insisted Klopp was wrong to float the idea City only succeed because they out-spend everyone.
"It bothers me," Guardiola told reporters on Friday. "Of course it bothers me because it's not true that we spend Pound 200 million in every transfer market.
"That is not true. This is Liverpool, 'you'll never walk alone' and all that, so it's not a small team. It's Liverpool.
"So of course I do not like it because it is not true. Last season we had a net spend of Pound 17 million on one player."
- 'That's reality' -
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