Manchester City’s mistake was natural and Guardiola knows it

The English Premier League title race is proving once again to live up to their competitive potential in the 2023/24 season, as going into Wednesday evening’s clash between Liverpool and Luton Town, you can split the top three sides in their top tier with a knife.

Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side were sat in top spot on 57 points, closely followed by Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City on 56 points, and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal squad were a single point below them on 55 and if you are involved in sports betting for a flutter or two, nobody would have predicted this back in August.

If that was not tight enough, complicating matters even further was the incredible achievements of Unai Emery at Aston Villa who turned them from potential relegation candidates in the 2022/23 season, and took them to European competition, and now has them sat pretty comfortably in fourth place in the table – only six points off Arsenal.

Aston Villa and Liverpool have significant injury issues to contend with, so the good money is on Manchester City once again to take the title, even if it is more of a last minute charge. Few think Arsenal will last the course after they struggled for consistency right at the end of the campaign last season, so if it is in Manchester City’s hands – why is Pep Guardiola still being questioned about summer transfer decisions?

And he is, City sold 21 year old youngster Cole Palmer to Chelsea back at the end of the last summer transfer window, and the deal was reportedly worth about £42.5 million to the Etihad Stadium outfit.

At the time it was considered a very key and clever piece of business given all the rumours that surround City’s Financial Fair Play compliance and the changes they face, but the problem for City now is that Palmer has excelled.

The youngster has now made two appearances for Gareth Southgate’s England side, and he has also scored ten goals for the club in the Premier League from his first 17 starts, and you can add another two goals to his tally from their English League Cup campaign.

He is not the first player to excel after a move, and he absolutely will not be the last, but naturally in the modern media age this raises questions on whether a mistake was made by the parent club or whether or not, it was just simply the case that a new, unfamiliar environment was needed to really bring the best out of a youngster as they dealt with a new challenge and looked to impress.

When questioned, Guardiola rightly would not be drawn into an opinion on that debate as it would effectively both criticise himself, and his club staff and the team around him, not least the player themselves as it would imply they got lazy, complacent and took life for granted in a way that impacted their ability to reach their potential.

He simply, and correctly, went with additional and further development opportunities that Palmer would have received has he stayed at the club had he made different decisions, whilst also acknowledging his desire for far greater game time to build his experience.

“After two or three seasons he wanted more minutes than the last season. I understand completely. If Palmer had the minutes I gave to Phil Foden from the beginning, Cole Palmer would be here – but I didn’t give them to him. That is my responsibility.”

Whilst Guardiola may have an element of disappointment at not being able to offer the same kind of pathway to the first team, or at the very least the more regular pathway he referenced with Foden, he knew he had genuine reasons for that which do stand up when you are managing a squad of thier combined talent.

“Why? Because of Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez, Phil. In that moment, I chose the other ones.”

A manager lives and dies by their choices, and few could actually argue that right now Guardiola is even any where near close to ‘dying’ by the choices he makes. Plenty in the wider world of football talk of their spending, but his philosophy has further changed football and how we look at line ups, and their equivalent roles in the team.

He also has his trophy cabinet in Manchester which eclipses all the criticism, as simply put, a dream team put together will not function. That takes a manager, a team belief, a plan, game tactics, personal relationships and in game management.

Palmer may be the one they let go, but if City do not look back it does not matter.