Great managers come with a philosophy, not with a moneybag and they build their squad, don't buy out of trouble. That's what Sir Alex, Wenger has done; in fact before getting spoiled in later stages, JoMou was fantastic with his management and he won above expected "things" as Porto & Inter with a tight budget. You can bring any Spanish or French or Latin Manager and give him $1bn as transfer kitty and unlimited wage cap, he'll play eye catching soccer.
What Pep is doing is just taking advantage of the tight situation MU, Chelsea, Arsenal & Liverpool facing - even Pochhetino is doing miles better with the budget Levy allows him. Pep managed Barca and Messi, which is earning him lots of soft votes here in PP, but think about what he is doing to spoil the game. Do you think trying to bring Mahrez for cup ties or paying 60mn for someone not even in French squad improves his image? City defense is not better, it's just out powering average sides, it's like Rashid Khan breaking all sorts of ODI bowling records - otherwise a $250mn defense doesn't concede 4 goals in an hour. Pep has 2 complete sets of back line for alternate games - make him use 4 defenders for whole season and then play make shifts like Milner & Leiva as wing Back or CB - you'll see his class.
In fact, for a top manager, first filter should be to avoid Clubs like MCity, PSG, CFC, Real, Old Anzi Machach.. (^%$##@)....... Simione declined to go to PSG, and I don't think he'll go to Real or MCity either, while Klopp decided not to go to Bayern.
Being a lifelong Liverpool fan, I had the utmost respect for Sir Alex, because guy wasn't shallow - he lived like a king, because he never begged his owners for fund in January (in fact hardly in July either).