Arsenal miss out on exciting transfer to Man City ‘hijack’ as Pep Guardiola strikes again

Arsenal fans will be fuming as Manchester City have swiped a wonderkid who was reportedly set to sign for the north London club.

The Gunners have been reported to be closing in on signing 16-year-old Ryan McAidoo from Chelsea for a number of months now, thought to be the frontrunners to acquire the youngster’s services. But Fabrizio Romano has now reported that City have hijacked Arsenal’s move for McAidoo – and he’s now headed for the Etihad instead of the Emirates Stadium.

The report claims that City have agreed a deal for the youngster to join their academy under the noses of several Premier League clubs after the player opted to sign for them.

While first-team action for the youngster seems a long way away, the opportunity to develop McAidoo as a player and cash in on his potential further down the line will be a huge miss to the Gunners. McAidoo has only made four appearances for Chelsea in the U18 Premier League thus far, also representing England at U17 level twice against Northern Ireland and Hungary in the European Championship qualifiers.

But his ball control, pace, pin-point passing and shooting capabilities have caught the attention of Pep Guardiola, who will look to put McAidoo through his paces at the Etihad Campus. It’s yet another win for City over their Premier League rivals – who have pipped them to the title for two seasons on the bounce while Arsenal have had to settle for second place. The 2022/23 campaign would see Mikel Arteta’s side miss out on the title by five points, despite heading into the final stretch looking likely to lift the trophy.

Just three wins out of their last nine games would allow Guardiola’s side to catch up and overtake though, leaving Arsenal fans pondering what could have been should they have seen better performances. The 2023/24 campaign would be a far tighter state of affairs, however, with City and Arsenal neck and neck right down to the last game of the season.

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The Cityzens would once again run out on top though. Arsenal needed to win their game against Everton to lift the title for the first time in 20 years, but they also needed West Ham to beat their Manchester rivals – and while the Gunners would hold up their end of the deal, City would ultimately beat the Hammers 3-1 to win the Premier League by an agonising two points.

That was painful enough but Arteta will be stinging again thanks to City after learning that Guardiola has inflicted more woe on them by stealing a player that was seemingly in their grasp.

And it’s also not the first time that transfers pertaining to City and Arsenal have backfired either. Arteta brought Gabriel Jesus to the Emirates Stadium in 2022 for £45million – and while he looked to be a world-beater under Guardiola, scoring 58 in 159 for the club, he’s struggled to adapt to the north London club’s style of play.

In fact, in his 53 appearances in red and white, the striker has only managed to net 15 times – four in the most recent campaign and 11 in his maiden season with Arsenal – and is no longer a nailed-on starter. The same can be said of Euro 2024 star Oleksandr Zinchenko, who didn’t enjoy the best of seasons last time around and also found himself pushed out of the team on occasion.