Man City has dominated the Premier League for six years, winning five league titles. Many factors contribute to their league dominance, and one of these factors is their ability to spot talent in their Premier League opponents and steal them.
Some stars Guardiola has poached from direct league rivals include Kyle Walker, who was flourishing at Spurs; Jack Grealish from Villa; John Stones from Everton; Mahrez from Leicester; and Nathan Ake from Bournemouth.
These “poached stars” have flourished – even Ake and Stones, whom many were unconvinced of, showed their brilliance last season.
As City signs other club’s promising prospects, these clubs’ squads become weaker, hence, City becomes stronger and their opponents less strong.
Arsenal should borrow from City’s playbook. Stealing Zinchenko and Jesus from them showed how stealing from direct opponents can positively impact them. Arteta needs to look for promising PL stars and strengthen his side with them, even if it means weakening the opponents.
Such a steal may be like Patrick Vieira has already singled out two of his former players, Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze, at Palace, who could be wise additions at Arsenal. He told the Mirror: “Which player at Palace now would be a part of Arsenal’s starting XI right now?
“Listen, at Palace, I had the chance to work with some really talented young players, and the two that come to my mind are Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze.
“They are young and still have a lot to improve on, but they have the potential to play in the top teams in Europe.”
Arsenal wants to be better than City, and for it to be so, they ought to copy some of the things Guardiola does, don’t you think?
Daniel O
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If you’re to believe the media, we are reportedly after all of Declan Rice, Caicedo and Ilkay Gündogan. Do we have space for all three? I still think our primary target should be a striker.
Agreed. None of those central midfielders can hold and win the ball in the final-third as a dominant CF does
Having said that, Olise could be a good competitor for Saka and Eze could rotate with our AMs
Yes, Pep did buy Walker, Grealish, Stones, Mahrez and Ake from EPL. But he bought De Bruyne, Haaland, Rodri, Dias, Akanji, Silva, Ederson and more from outside. It’s about balance. No point buying inflated English or EPL players from a club that use that money to buy better players for cheaper prices outside.
@Mike Ram
Spot on…👍🏾
Homegrown players are important to beat the quota, otherwise Man City wouldn’t have signed many overpriced English players
Premier League teams have all turned their minds to purchasing high profile players instead of improving Home grown players. This is risky because in future teams will nolonger have sharp accademy talents.
Home grown players are so good for example: bukayo saka, Smith Rowe etc.
Debruyne was already there when Pep came
I agree 👍
Guardiola’s blueprint:
– Inherit the best squad in the league
– Spend the most money
– Buy all the best players
And that Jen is what it all boils down to, the rest is just a deterrent to that truth.
Net spend since pep took over city
Utd – 902€
Chelsea -830€
City-667€
Arsenal -638€
Let’s not pretend we haven’t spent any cash ourselves ,reported another 200 million this summer .
Agree with you, I posted something similar recently, but one thing to consider is that the net spend takes into account how much you gained back from outgoing transfers – city have been really good from that perspective. I think if you only look at gross spend, they’re way ahead of us, but still not the biggest spenders in the league (I’d imagine – would have to check).
If it was just about money, Chelsea and utd would be the clear top 3 with city, and I think we’d be a bit behind.
City haven’t just spent a lot of money, they’ve spent it wisely and got the most from the players they’ve signed. People don’t want to acknowledge this – they like the narrative that city bought all their success and we had no chance because of the difference in spending power. That’s simply not true – city have made smart moves with their money over a prolonged period, and if we’d been that smart (albeit with slightly less money to spend), we would be far more competitive with them. It’s like what Brighton have done, just on another level.
Obviously it was a little tongue in cheek from me, because I am well aware of Utd’s spending in relation to their consistent failings.
You do need the correct culture, structure, manager, etc, it’s not just about money.
Pep is good manager, and his play entertaining football, I am just pointing out he’s had it easier than any manager I can think of. I don’t think he’s been particularly challenged.
And for your point, remember the starting point of some of the teams you’ve mentioned. E.g. Arteta has spent a fair bit, but look at what he inherited. He’s had to spend a lot to try and close the gap, as the quality of the squad he inherited was lightyears away from City’s.
Man City has been winning the league before pep showed up. That means they have a winning team before, Pep was just the icing in the cake.
And most was spent by the poster boy for some poster boys – Ozil, Laca, PEA, Mustafi, Xhaka , Petr
And then came Leno, Pepe, Socrates,
Mikel’s lads – Ben, Jesus, Zinny, Ramsdale held the torch for most of the season.
Stop envy pep Gaurdiola, he his one of the greatest coach soon he Sir Alex record will be shaking. 1: he Inherited a team that as not won the league in three years, his first season he did third 2: let be fact here since pep came to man city 2016/17season man United, Chelsea spend the most money than man city and nothing to show compare to man city that is third in most money spend our own Arsenal are in fourth. 3: good player will easy want to play for him wen they all knows his success they will jump into the boat. All i can wish for his just for pep to leave premiership for us Arsenal to dominate For some while without that it will be difficult for Arsenal to dominate where pep stand if we are to win one league pep would hv won two or three before we can think of win one. He understands the game and he play by the rules that make him to dominate all the leagues he has played thirteen season ten league won that is damn not easy
Sir Alex Ferguson’s record will be shaking? Doubtful. He won 13 league titles with MU and took the club from years of obscurity to be the most dominant force in English football since the Liverpool team of the 70s & 80s. No way will Pep stay at City long enough to get close to that record and even then you can’t compare the two because Pep has had the luxury of only ever working with the best. Ferguson built his team from scratch and made champions out of them year after year. He earned the right to buy the best players, Pep has always had the luxury of having them.
Don’t get me wrong, I think Pep is a genius, but you simply cannot compare him and Ferguson. In my mind you can’t even compare him to Wenger. He built an unbeatable team by coaching players that were mostly unheard of or broken men with severe issues.
Guardiola is so overrated. He has always been given the most inform team in every league and the one with the most money. He just buys the best players. I would like to see him change an average team without unlimited resources. This narrative makes one sick.
@Mwachia Mshila
RealTalk. To me, Eddie Howe is the benchmark. Jus sayin…
Us Gooners can’t really know the new players who Arsenal will sign this summer. As against Arsenal knowing the new players who they want to try to sign them this summer. But which they don’t say it out or talk about them publicly until they’ve completed the deals for their signings.
What us Gooners do rely on for a seemingly possible Arsenal incomings this summer is the rumour mill. Who churn out almost unending Arsenal summer signing rumours on daily basis.
So therefore, I in person prefer to wait for this summer transfer window to open tomorrow Thursday 14th . To read or hear who are the new players Arsenal have officially submitted biddings for to sign them this summer.
Meanwhile, us Gooners can continuing with our agitation for Aesenal to seem sign the new players us want them to sign this summer.
For me, Live suddenly come up with Kylian Mbappe wanting Arsenal to sign him this summer.
You can have all the money in the world but if you don’t manage it right it’s useless.
Pep’s strength is:
– recruiting the right players that fit in with his style and the other current players in the squad
– man management, he knows exactly how to keep stars happy
– rotation, he changes players most games based on opponents and to keep the whole squad fresh
These are the exact things MA is not very good at, some recruitment has been good but some has been bad. The other 2 points he fails terribly at. Until he fixes that he’ll never be considered a top manager.
Top points
Look at Mikel’s bench – Holding! Nelson! Elneny! Tomi , ESR hardly make it to the bench either.
Trossad, Jorginho and Kiwor are the only worthwhile bench warmers worthy for rotations
Demand Pep to win a treble with these bench warmers.
How many players has MA bought/extended contracts that are either now on loan and/or subpar?
Remind me again please? I’ll wait….
While we are here, care to quote our net spend vs City in the last 5 years?
To Win something in epl, you must sign quality players and more so emphasize on the depth of the squad. arsenal certainly have been lacking these. it’s time to take consideration
I don’t totally agree. MA has not managed the squad at his disposal well enough. He kept playing the same guys even when it was evident that they were tired or out of form which I think cost us the title. You can’t keep player redundant for majority of the season only for you to expect a magic when there is an injury to your favorites. MA needs to go and learn man management from His tutor before the beginning of the new season, otherwise he would fall short again for the same reason.
Agreed. Obviously Pep’s squad depth is superior but it’s the way he uses it, varying his lineup from game to game, which makes it much harder for opposing managers to adjust their tactics. This is something MA really has to learn.
Signing young talent like Olise, Guehi, Danilo, would really improve the team and squad and provide Arteta with more options. It’s then up to him to use them properly. Pep’s biggest talent is being able to keep so many players happy for so long.
I concur with Patrick Vieira’s thought regarding Michael Olise. He would actually push Saka and the team wouldn’t be demonstratively weakened by having Bukayo sit out now and then. Additionally, it could allow Saka to play more centrally by playing them both together.
As for other players we could poach from other EPL teams, in the spirit of the article, I would take Marc Guehi from Palace, too. Caicedo (unsurprisingly) from Brighton, Ben Johnson from West Ham, and Danilo from Forest. I think those players would really bolster our squad, and they’re all young and talented.
*Demonstrably* sodding autocorrect/key swype
What is the total cost of the current EPL top squads. Guardiola found an expensively assembled squad and only improves in certain areas as opposed to Arsenal that was almost being built from scratch. The cost of the squad and the salaries veing paid is ultimately what counts. Some teams are wont to wasting their cash though.
We aren’t that far behind City we’re prob mentally weaker is what made the difference, they just had so much valuable experience from winning so often. Some good players with strong mental character could help us to close the gap. Bring in players that will relish being in the position that we were in with ten games to go, having a fighting chance with fighters, that’s all we can ask for
More than 90% of players are his boys. So has no excuse. Problem with Arteta is his man management is very poor. He lacks ability to motivate players. He hates rotation of players. He buys average players and finally, his bias against some players is too evident. If he wants to lay his hands on EPL trophy, he should improve on the above points.
What the Arsenal legend said makes lots of football sense.
But we are doing a bit of that just now, Jusr Declan Rice and the Caicedo kid could make Arsenal hard to beat.
Yes I strongly agree with the Legendary Frenchman, maybe we should be doing it more
Arsenal as a team had good players though they were for first eleven and would it be that they had good stars which they could substitute then no team could have defeated and secondly the directors knows the best players but to pay for them is abig problem and for next season I think Arteta should sign amidfielder,striker and a winger.