Just 24 hours after City had romped to a 3-0 victory at the Emirates Stadium in December 2019, the Spaniard was photographed welcoming Gunners’ managing director Vinai Venkatesham and director for football operations Huss Fahmy into his Manchester home for a late-night meeting that was meant to be secret.
City’s hierarchy certainly didn’t 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 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 about Arsenal’s interest.
There was also indignation that Arsenal had treated City with disrespect. There had been an opportunity for vice-chairman Josh Kronke to approach City chief executive Ferran Soriano about Arsenal’s plans for Arteta in the Emirates boardroom a day earlier.
Their irritability was compounded by the fact that Arsene Wenger had never been shy in offering the Blues hierarchy lessons about how to behave with dignity when he was Arsenal boss and City were raiding his squad to sign Emmanuel Adebayor, Bacary Sagna, Gael Clichy, Kolo Toure and Samir Nasri.
It was Wenger who 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.
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Arteta was a big part of Guardiola's coaching team prior to his Arsenal switch (
Image:
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A City source said: “Arsenal were one of the clubs who really suffered when the takeover happened. They used to be title challengers and Champions League regulars - and had to have someone to blame for their demise.
“It was galling to hear how they are a club who have always conducted themselves with class. That isn’t the experience we’ve had in dealing with them.
“It wasn’t a secret that Arteta harboured ambitions about becoming a manager himself and there was even a plan taking shape that he could one day succeed Pep at the Etihad.
“To find out through the media that he spoke to Arsenal behind our backs and without permission was disappointing. It wasn’t a surprise that Arsenal had done the same.”
Guardiola and Arteta are once again vying for the Premier League title
City would have allowed Arteta to become Arsenal manager with their blessing had they been formally approached. Instead they demanded £2million in compensation to cover the last 18 months of the Spaniard’s contract.
The relationship between City and Arsenal deteriorated further when the Etihad club discovered that the Gunners were behind a plot hatched with eight other Premier League clubs to demand the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the Blues’ two-year ban from European football if their appeal against the punishment levied by UEFA for Financial Fair Play breaches had to be postponed due to the pandemic.
The Londoners denied that they had both proposed and drafted the letter to CAS. But City are still adamant that their information is correct and that Arsenal had persuaded Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Newcastle, Leicester, Wolves and Burnley to sign up to the proposal.
City defused the possibility of having their ban imposed before the appeal process by informing CAS they were willing for their case to be held remotely - and they subsequently won their appeal.
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