According to Goal.com, Pep Guardiola is telling associates that if he is coming to the Premier League, he prefers Arsenal over Chelsea.
The Spaniard has been linked with English clubs Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City after leaving Barcelona to take a year-long sabbatical as well as with mega-rich French side Paris St. Germain.
“Guardiola’s preference in England is Arsenal,” a source told Goal.com. “The club are aware he would be interested in the job in 2013.”
Chelsea were thought to be favourites to land Guardiola given owner Roman Abramovich’s no-expense-spared obsession with the 41-year-old. However, the source claims:
“Guardiola doesn’t want to go to Chelsea. He is worried about the lack of stability. He also has a good relationship with Wenger dating back to when he started doing his coaching badges at Arsenal.”
The interesting part of those quotes to me is the part that Arsenal are aware of Guardiola’s interest in coming to the Emirates. I wonder what the response was?
From a playing style and philosophy Guardiola would be a perfect fit for Arsenal. The Arsenal academy is already playing a brand of a tiki-taka, making the transition to someone like Guardiola seamless.
Plus with the increased sponsorship money and the massive increase in TV revenue that Arsenal will get next season, the Gunners could hand Guardiola a massive transfer budget of around £85m without running afoul of the Uefa Financial Fair Play rules.
After yesterday’s defeat in the cup, I would suspect that a significant number of Arsenal fans would fully support Guardiola replacing Arsene Wenger at the end of the season. Would you?
