Keeping up with the Guardiolas by Gianni
If your rich neighbour bought a new Ferrari and you wanted to ‘keep up with the Jones’ so to speak, would anybody outside your own household think buying their old car, a nice Audi coupe, is a match?
The Audi is a quality car but clearly inferior to the Ferrari. After all, you’ve bought the car your neighbour did not want, and they have clearly replaced it with a far superior one. You haven’t kept up with Jones’, you’ve shown to everybody in your neighbourhood that you are beneath them, and this act is merely a confirmation of your lower hierarchical position in the neighbourhood and your inability to compete.
This is how the potential acquisition of Gabriel Jesus could and probably should be viewed. There is so much positivity around winning the race for his signature without necessarily considering what this means and says about Arsenal. It is almost an admission that we are and have accepted Arsenal being a second rung premier league outfit; beneath the elite of clubs like Manchester City.
If City have invested heavily in Haaland, Liverpool in Nunez then surely only the signing of a player in the category of Victor Osimhen could be considered an investment to match their ambition. Lauding the signature of Gabriel Jesus might concern or impress other second rung clubs but likely to only create smug, comfortable grins from the faces of the real elite clubs as they shine their new Ferraris and Lamborghinis.
Gianni Angio
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