Arsenal and Manchester City are in two way Premier League title fight in the recent seasons. Gunners came very close on both occasions but fell short. They lost the league title in 2022/23 season by five points. Last season they came even more close and lost the title by only two points. Arsenal have a very rich history when compared to Manchester City. They are one of the greatest clubs in the world. However, it is not the same for City. City became the great team only after 2008. Abu Dhabi United group took the charge of City and transforming the team. They tried to recruit Ivan Gazidis who later became the part of Arsenal team.
Manchester City are currently facing 115 charges relating to financial expenses. Some of those charges go all the way back to 2009. Premier League is set to hold a trial where each one of the 115 charges will be heard separately. Manchester City have rejected all the charges. In addition, they say that they will come clean in the trials. The trial will start next month. Premier League wants to get results before the end of 2024/25 season. No other club has talked about the City situation. However, we can sense that many of then will hope the results do not go in the favour of City.
Arsenal have only finished above City three times since the takeover. Two of those three times was when City were still transforming, that is starting seasons. City then managed to sign some of the top players across Europe. They signed players like Carlos Tevez, Robinho, Gareth Barry, Yaya Toure and many more. They brought in Roberto Mancini who helped City win their first league title ever.
Who is Ivan Gazidis
Gazidis is currently the chairman of AS Saint-Etienne. Saint-Etienne is the french club which features in Ligue 1. Before moving to France, Gazidis has done similar job for AC Milan. He was the part of Milan board when they won the Serie A title in 2022. It was the first league title Milan won since 2011. Gazidis has also served as chief executive for Arsenal. It was back in between 2008 and 2018. Before he took the Arsenal job, Gazidis was being offered a job at Manchester City. It was for the CEO position. However, Gazidis rejected the offer. Later, Garry Cook took over as CEO for City and did a very good job.
Why did Gazidis rejected City job
Ivan Gazidis opened about his time back in England in the Excellent Leadership Podcast. He talked about various factors that paved his path to Arsenal football club. He said he had to say yes when Arsenal came knocking his door. Gazidis received an offer from City a year before he joined Gunners. This was before City takeover in 2008. Gazidis rejected the offer and said he was not interested. However, his name got famous and other clubs tried to sign him as well.
Gazidis got another offer after rejecting City. This was few months later and the offer was from Arsenal. Gazidis said that he does not want to go through another process due to his recent experience with Manchester City. In addition, he said that everyone else will see him as American even though he grew up in England and consider himself English. However, Gunners approached Gazidis again after six or seven months. This time they said to Gazidis that he is the one they are looking for. Gazidis was impressed this time and was unable to say no. He accepted the offer and was chief executive for Arsenal from 2008 to 2018.
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