Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola appears to be aiming a dig at Arsenal after claiming it might be uncomfortable for them as his side keeps spending its way to success.
The Gunners have not had much success in getting Stan Kroenke to outspend their rivals in the last few seasons.
However, City has spent around £1bn in buying players since Guardiola became their manager in 2016.
They have won several league titles and reached the Champions League final last season, while Arsenal cannot even make the top four.
But he claims Arsenal and the other “elite” clubs in England have to understand that they deserve where they are.
He said on the BBC: “I know for the elite clubs, like Liverpool, Man United and especially Arsenal, it is uncomfortable (for Man City) being here, but they have to understand we deserve to be here.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
It is a good thing that the Spaniard still sees us as an elite club despite not playing in the Champions League since 2017.
While we struggle to find our way back to the top four, City has continued to spend to win trophies.
What we can do is to learn from them and splash the cash on the best players around. That way, we could challenge for titles.
Mikel Arteta discusses the Wolves win, referees and red cards
It’s not a dig, it’s the truth.
Anyone know how much we’ve spent since 2016?
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Third highest spenders, we have spent more than Chelsea and Liverpool.
Reply to Pjsa.
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Add to reggies comment
The money wasted on loans and pay offs and subsidies of wages we have spent a lot of monies with little rewards .
The way Liverpool go about their business is something to strive for ,I mean jota alone this season just goes to show what can be achieved without wasting money when you have a top manager and back room staff to support it it really shows on the pitch and football being played .
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Perhaps why we see the change in Arsenal’s recruitment policy. Young talented players who can develop and grow into top Premier League players in the next few years.
We dug quite a hole bringing in players with little to no resale value, and on high wages to boot.
The money has not been spent wisely in the past, and the band-aid approach we saw did not push us to the next level in terms of competing.
This approach will take time to gauge whether it is successful or not, but we know the previous method was a failure.
I would agree with some of what you profess Durand, in that the previous approach failed in several respects, but I wouldn’t be so quick to throw the baby out with the bath water
if you think back to the Sanchez era, I would contend that if we had simply stretched ourselves a tad, financially-speaking, and bought a steely DM, then sold Giroud and brought in the kind of Striker befitting a team trying to make a push on multiple fronts, I think that particular model would have borne fruit
so whereas I agree with the notion that things ultimately failed to produce the desired results, the reasons why had less to do with the players available at that time and more to do with the unwillingness of those in charge to compete the process…as we both know, things went to sh** as a result of this miscalculation
as for the new imperative or “process”, under MA, following an incredibly flawed “retool” initiative, no one can argue that there appears to be a more youthful recruitment movement in the offing…in many respects, I support this belated “rebuild” narrative, yet I’m not sure I would have put such a novice in charge of it, especially once he showed that he would gladly take the “easy” way out if it presented itself
furthermore, the one thing you must try to avoid whenever you’re in “rebuild” mode is paying over the number for unproven players, which he did last summer, as it’s counter-intuitive to the underlying principles of this particular team-building model(some positional exceptions notwithstanding)…so the Nuno and Lokonga purchases and the re-upping of young players already in-house, fit the script, the White, Ode and even the Ramsdale acquisitions were far more problematic, as there were no guarantees that they would make financial sense short or long-term…that said, the Ramsdale deal looks to be a good one, although it’s still early and if we had simply kept Martinez those monies could have gone a long way to helping us shore up a far more pressing need
complete the process
I dont agree that splashing the cash brings immediate success. Look at Liverpool, they spend similar to Arsenal yet are a level above Arsenal. The team tactics, players played in their right positions, the right players playing according to their strengths, all these matter. I am sure Arteta will figure it out, will find a way and soon we will be consistently in the top 4.
Where would Ferguson be if he had not spent in the 1990s to the 2000s.
Arsenal have only themselves to blame for believing in Uefa’s financial fairplay9