If it is any consolation to Piero Ausilio, he is far from alone. Inter’s sporting director told the tale this week of how the Milan club had offered more money than Manchester City for Gabriel Jesus in the summer of 2016 and had received encouraging words from Palmeiras…”then the boy, through his agents, let us know that he preferred to play for [Pep] Guardiola.”
Once you’re over the tired myth that City only buy players by outspending everyone else, Ausilio’s lament serves as a handy reminder about one of the biggest weapons for the Blues in the transfer market.
Ever since he exploded onto the world stage with three trophies in his first season as Barcelona coach, Guardiola has been a magnet for the world’s best players and prospects to come and take their game to the next level.
Pep Guardiola achieved phenomenal success with Barcelona Ten years on, the pull has only grown stronger.
City’s bosses pulled out all the stops to get Guardiola to the Etihad and the number of players that have followed him to Manchester alone have made it more than worth their while.
On top of incomings including Jesus and Ederson convinced by a phone-call from the coach, others made plans for the Catalan. Pablo Zabaleta was persuaded to stay for another year and Aleks Kolarov shelved plans to leave in order to pick up some tips for what he hopes will be a successful coaching career in future; nearly all of the current first-team stars have signed up the best years of their career to the club.
It hasn’t been enough to keep everyone happy or land all targets. As the manager explained recently, it is significantly harder to convince players to join with every other top club that enters the bidding.
What has been significant about the misses is that those that have turned down a move have been careful to keep the door open for the future. Kylian Mbappe pointedly said that he “didn’t say ‘no’ to Guardiola” but to City, Dani Alves cited family reasons for turning down a reunion with the coach and the Sunday Mirror reported Frenkie De Jong to be “devastated” at missing out on the opportunity to work with him. (Examples that don’t involve PSG are also available.)