‘Absolute bollocks’ – Man City fans react over ‘rubbish’ transfer claim involving Arsenal

Manchester City fans have been reacting to a post on Twitter which relays a report that claims the club will no longer sanction the sale of first-team stars to Arsenal.

The Londoners bought Gabriel Jesus in a £45million deal and Oleksandr Zinchenko later joined for £30million plus £2million of add-ons from the Premier League champions during the summer window.

The Gunners now lead City by five points atop the Premier League after playing 14 times each – but both sides are yet to meet this term after their October meeting was postponed due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

According to Football Insider, Questions have been asked at City about why they allowed two first-teamers to join a rival who are now their biggest competition to win the title.

The report claims Guardiola’s side will reject any potential further offers from Arsenal for players who would go straight into their team.

The report shared on Twitter gathered a number of replies from a wide range of Man City supporters. Here is what Some Cityzens have been saying:

“Absolute bollocks”
Credit: @blue_highland

“This is the biggest load of bollocks I’ve read in a minute, we’d sell them another 3 players”
Credit: @HEELMacintosh

“Load of rubbish. Zinchenko has been injured most of the season and Jesus hasn’t scored for like 6 games, they’re not the reason arsenal are top of the league..”
Credit: @D4NNY_F0X

“They weren’t a title rival at the time”
Credit: @lewislcWP

“Pep stated this before. They let them go because three of them already help the club win a lot hence they got the permission to go anywhere”
Credit: @armxndomcfc

Manchester City right to break ten-year transfer policy?

When other first team regulars have left, City have been careful to sell to other clubs around Europe, who are only likely to play against each other in the Champions League, rather than help another side take league points off them. Leroy Sane joined Bayern Munich, Ferran Torres and Sergio Aguero joined Barcelona, and going back a bit further, Edin Dzeko joined Roma.

That’s not to say City have not sold anyone to another Premier League club, because they have every summer. However these players have either never played for City (like Jack Harrison and Douglas Luiz), or they have joined a club lower down the division.

Maybe the last first-team quality player to join a comparable club was Emmanuel Adebayor, when he joined Spurs in 2012 permanently after a loan deal. Even then, he hadn’t been in City’s plans for a year. James Milner’s free transfer to Liverpool in 2015 could be an exception, although it was a move that suited all parties at the time, and Milner has arguably gone on to prove he was worth keeping more than City may have expected.

In general, though, City have cleverly avoided allowing good, title-winning players to join a top six rival. But were right to sell Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko to Arsenal and even Sterling to Chelsea.

With the arrivals of Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez, that policy had to be stood down for a year to rediscover a good balance in the squad.