Mancheater City: 115

[Yousif Arsenal]

...interesting take...wrong, but interesting nonetheless.

He unhappy because we were one of clubs that wanted to ban city and the way we approached mikel

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

 

[Rosso]

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

He not let it go. Take the L and move on ffs.

 

[Toby]

get a load of this guy @Toby Andrl

Just a cum dumpster.

 

[A_G]

Sam Lee from the Athletic wrote a piece on this:

“And Arsenal, I have all the respect for what they are on the pitch, not much off the pitch, but on the pitch, a lot. Congratulations to them and good luck in the final.”

As is so often the case, an idea popped into Pep Guardiola’s head and he couldn’t resist saying it. He had been discussing the prospect of facing Watford and Norwich as preparation for Real Madrid when he went off on a tangent to get something off his chest.

It is the kind of comment that will attract plenty of headlines because it is, quite literally and very unapologetically, a lack of respect for another Premier League club.

Guardiola’s tendency to speak his mind has regularly been a problem for Manchester City’s communications department over the past four years, with the Catalan struggling to stay on message, but nobody at the club will have any issue with his latest outburst.

The bad blood with Arsenal goes back well before Guardiola’s arrival in England but he has been filled in on all the previous grievances, those which were stoked by Arsenal’s pursuit of Mikel Arteta in December.

It was only last week, in the wake of the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision to overturn City’s Champions League ban, that Guardiola rounded on many of the club’s biggest critics, from Liverpool to La Liga president Javier Tebas and everybody in between.

Whatever you may think of City’s owners or how the club is run, it cannot be said that they have aired their grievances in public. They have listened to countless high-profile figures at clubs across Europe (there is a list) discussing or criticising their business in public since the 2008 takeover. Clearly, the likes of Liverpool, Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham, Borussia Dortmund and, you might assume, the entire Spanish top flight still believe City to be guilty.

City feel completely vindicated by their CAS win and while they do not appear to be in the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” camp just yet, they certainly do not mind Guardiola airing a few grievances in the club’s name.

He had not stuck his head above the parapet since but Arsenal suddenly found themselves in the firing line on Monday. It may be put down to sour grapes given they knocked City out of the FA Cup at the weekend but Guardiola has given credit to his opponents and has been more than critical of his own players whenever discussing the match itself.

The full answer, in response to a question about City’s last two league games, began with this: “Watford and Norwich can beat us but I want us to be who we are. I said after Arsenal, we didn’t play the first half like the second. That was the only regret. We wanted to play 90 minutes like the second half. But after we were beaten, we shake hands.” It was then that he aired his lack of respect for Arsenal.

Former boss Arsène Wenger got a special mention last week, with Guardiola hardly breaking his stride to remind the man who had “defended Financial Fair Play perfectly” that City have been playing by the rules.

It was Wenger who coined the phrase “financial doping” way back in 2009 when discussing City and Real Madrid, and the Manchester club’s annoyance with the Frenchman and his former employers stems from there, although it certainly continues to this day.

As reported by the Daily Mail on Monday, City are very much of the opinion that the Gunners were the ringleaders of a group of Premier League clubs who wrote to CAS in March, urging them not to allow City to delay the appeal against their Champions League ban so they could play in the competition next season while a verdict was reached.

City were aggrieved by that — they were actually trying to speed the process up — and Guardiola made sure to list every single club last week. The fact that City believe Arsenal were behind it will be one of the reasons for Guardiola’s fresh barb.

City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak had sent an initial warning last summer: “The football world is very small and word comes around very quickly so, you know, when someone somewhere in a leading position in any club says something, or briefs something, guess what? We know about it.”

It had been assumed that Liverpool and Manchester United were being referenced but Arsenal were very much a part of it. Guardiola has a very close relationship with Al Mubarak and is close friends with director of football Txiki Begiristain, who arrived at City in 2012, the same year CEO Ferran Soriano joined. Guardiola is very much his own man but on these issues he sings from the same hymn sheet.

The Londoners remain staunch supporters of FFP and Raul Sanllehi, the head of football, was hired partly because of his influence with UEFA’s European Club Association, the body which replaced the old G14, which former Arsenal chairman David Dein presided over in the mid-2000s.

You can imagine how that would rile City, the pariahs of European football, who have continued to be criticised by their rivals despite victory at CAS.

The differences between the two clubs, as with City and so many others, could be described as ideological.

Arsenal had the option to sell to a billionaire backer in Alisher Usmanov but didn’t take it and were and are in favour of financial regulations which would have allowed them to keep pace with Europe’s giants in the years after they moved to the Emirates Stadium. They gambled on building their new ground and remaining self-sustainable, which ultimately did not pay off in terms of silverware as City, Chelsea and others in Europe overtook them following cash injections.

In fact, they essentially needed to sell one star player every summer to ensure cash reserves were met, which was a clause in their loan agreement for the stadium move. City were more than willing to help out, buying Kolo Toure, Gael Clichy, Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Adebayor. The latter had asked to stay at Arsenal but Wenger believed the money was too good to turn down and told him to go. As Arsenal saw their team weakened as they strived to fund their stadium move, City were directly benefiting.

Of course, CAS’s decision proves that City have followed the same rules as everybody else since their fine for breaching FFP in 2014. The club and its supporters have long felt that UEFA’s financial regulation was drawn up by Europe’s influential elite to stop any newcomers from breaking up their hegemony.

Interestingly, Wenger himself has come to agree, saying as recently as May: “These rules have fixed a hierarchy, the big historical clubs are bigger and bigger and, obviously, they are all fighting for FFP rules to be scrupulously applied to the others so that competitors can’t come through.”

Again, City’s response is easy to imagine; they’ve been saying that for years.

Whatever the future of FFP, it must ensure competition is possible for those outside the traditional European powerhouses but does not permit unfettered spending.

It is not all about money, however. City were livid at how Arsenal went about their pursuit of Arteta back in December, immediately after the two sides had played in north London. By the next morning, there were pictures of Arsenal directors Vinai Venkatesham and Huss Fahmy leaving Arteta’s house at 1am — City insist that nobody at the London club had mentioned anything about moving for Guardiola’s assistant in the director’s box the day before.

City stressed they had still not received an official approach by that point, although Arsenal were — and continue to be — bemused by the complaints as they believe they did everything by the book.

It is, as is so often the case, a matter of opinion and of different perspectives.

 

[AberGooner]

This coming from someone who was employed by barcelona for many years, with the way they operate off the pitch, doesn't hold much weight

 

[Hunta]

How I wish Arsène was here for a clapback. Arteta will just say nothing.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

How I wish Arsène was here for a clapback. Arteta will just say nothing.

One lose and that what happen to him he does that always when he get knocked out. Bad loser

 

[Taneruit]

How I wish Arsène was here for a clapback. Arteta will just say nothing.

I read that as a jib aimed at the club management (for sending the letter), not at Arteta.

Not that he isn't a bad loser though. Or even has to be bitter about it, he won in Court after all FFS. He should get over it.

 

[Plutarch]

Gardiola looks stupid for coming out with this now - right after their bad defeat to Arsenal. Just makes him look like a bad loser. A crybaby, in fact.

 

[Oxeki]

Pep should get over it.

He's slowly morphing into Mourinho

 

[say yes]

I’m sorry but this is just not acceptable:

 

[AbouCuéllar]

Pep's comments likely have to do with Sanllehí too. He was a part of that Barça directive team that Pep fell out with and which has handled the club so poorly post-Pep so probably little doubt he's not a big fan of Sanllehí and that's fair enough, tbh.

Just glad we agree on the really important part: Arteta. As long as Arteta is really forcing his vision on the club I have faith in our direction. Without him little faith in Sanhellí as a football man to give the club direction, and who knows about Edu, but he was hired by Raúl so...In short, thank god we hired Arteta and pray that he continues here a while and builds a successful project.

 

[A_G]

Bluemoon meltdown

Not in the least bit surprising. We were out at 7pm

Not even angry, I expected this against Lyon. This team simply can't play against any half decent team who can park the bus and play on the counter.

And it's not all about the defence. DMs who have no idea how to stop a counterl, attack not clinical enough against defences where you don't get 20 chances.

As usual Pep will use the misses as excuse - "we created enough chances but did not finish" . Cannot hide his experimentation which never seems to stop in key matches.

4 years = quarter final best result. Guardiola can’t hack Europe.

When do we sign Nagelsmann?

**** you Sterling and Pep. ****ing bottlers.

Crap from start to finish.

All down to Pep and his **** selection and tactics.

the manager played over half the game using ridiculous tactics which we’ve never played before. 5 at the back as well as a false 9?
****ing ridiculous.
pep’s a p***y and he’s never going to win this competition again.

Third QF loss for Pep on the trot against inferior opponents. Each opponent gradually worse from Liverpool to Sp**s and now 7th place Ligue 1 side Lyon.

**** off pep big game ****s its every time ,over thinks it 3 defensive midfielders tonight **** off

If we want to win this comp, get next season done with and then bring in a coach who can get us defending like a top class side and scare the hell out of sides on the break with our fast players (who barely featured tonight).

The squad we have would have mopped up domestically with Mark Hughes as Manager ffs, Pep was brought in to dominate this comp and he has looked worse than Pellegrini for the utterly weird approach to some games.

 

[Taneruit]

Bluemoon meltdown

Regarding that last post. If they actually think that way. :rofl:

I mean I'm all down with Pep Bald Fraud jokes and he chokes everytime in the CL. He's still a top class coach with a certain style and just bringing in another defensive minded coach when they don't even have the players for it is a recipe for disaster. And no its not magically gonna fix everything.

Though it would be hilarious to see City slip back into mediocrity.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

In 4 season he spent 750m. This summer will arrive to 1 billion and still can't win CL

 

[Rex Stone]

Have that you bald fraud.

 

[A_G]

Can't believe I'd never seen that before

 

[Riou]

Can't believe I'd never seen that before

This is like Shreeves telling Ivanovic he is missing the Champions League final