GUNNERS ART OF SKULDUGGERY
MIKEL ARTETA and Pep Guardiola are friends as well as rivals – but the Arsenal boss still has not been forgiven by senior figures at the Etihad over the way he engineered his exit from Manchester City.
Just 24 hours after City romped to a 3-0 win at the Emirates in December 2019, Arteta was photographed welcoming Gunners managing director Vinai Venkatesham and director for football operations Huss Fahmy into his Manchester home for a late-night meeting meant to be secret.
The City hierarchy did not know that
Guardiola’s assistant was in talks about returning to north London as Unai Emery’s successor. They were also unaware that Arteta had already met with Arsenal chief Raul Sanllehi the previous week.
Guardiola was in the process of an ultimately futile bid to reel in runaway leaders Liverpool to win a third successive Premier League trophy – and there was a sense of anger at the club that Arteta had failed to inform them of Arsenal’s interest.
There was also indignation that Arsenal had treated City with disrespect.
There had been an opportunity for vicechairman Josh Kroenke to approach City chief executive Ferran Soriano on
Arsenal’s plans for Arteta in the Emirates boardroom a day earlier.
And Arsene Wenger had never been shy in offering the Blues lessons about how to behave with dignity when he was Arsenal boss and City were raiding his squad.
Wenger first used the term “financial doping” to describe the way City had used Sheikh Mansour’s money to transform the club following his takeover in 2008.
A City source said: “To find out through the media that Arteta spoke to Arsenal behind our backs and without permission was disappointing. It wasn’t a surprise that Arsenal had done the same.”