Pep Guardiola admitted Manchester City wanted to sign Declan Rice from West Ham (Picture: Hayters TV)
Pep Guardiola has admitted Manchester City were desperate to sign Declan Rice from West Ham this summer.
The England international was the subject of an £80million bid from the Premier League champions in the summer, but City were not prepared to enter a bidding war once their opening offer was immediately rejected by the Hammers.
Arsenal subsequently opted to smash their transfer record by agreeing a £105million fee with their London rivals and are immediately benefiting from that decision with Rice producing a series of outstanding displays at the heart of the Gunners’ midfield.
Asked why City failed to sign one of their key targets during the transfer window ahead of Sunday’s summit meeting with Arsenal, Guardiola said: ‘For sure everybody knows City wanted him, we wanted him. He could play not just when Rodri could not”.
‘At the end, Arsenal pushed more and wanted him more, maybe Arteta was more convincing than me, or the club itself, or their offer.
‘We could afford it maybe less, that’s why.’
Arsenal, who are unbeaten after seven league games and lie just one point City in the table, also paid more than £60m for Kai Havertz and their spending power suggests they will be challengers for a while.
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Guardiola added: ‘Normally when Manchester City spent this amount of money it’s crazy, when it’s the other ones how smart they are.
‘I’m not denying that everyone can do whatever they want and never judge the other one. We have been judged all the time but it’s fine.
‘When we were in the middle of the table it never happened (like) that, it was not a problem, we were not under scrutiny from the rest.
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‘At the moment Arsenal’s recruitment is really good. They have a young squad for many, many years.
‘The perspective for many is the fact that they will be there many times and, of course, Declan Rice is an exceptional, exceptional holding midfielder with the national team.
‘He is an exceptional player.’
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