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Pep Guardiola has been backed to see out the remainder of his Manchester City contract despite talk of him leaving the club next summer. The former Barcelona boss signed a new deal until 2027 at the end of last year but new reports claim he may leave the Etihad early. Now, an ex-City star has poured cold water on such speculation, while outlining why Guardiola is a better tactician than Arsenal's Mikel Arteta.

• Guardiola plans to stop after Man City

  In late July, Guardiola was quizzed about his City future, despite him having two years left on his deal. 

  He told GQ Hype: "I know that after this stage with City I'm going to stop, that's for sure, it's decided, more than decided. I'm going to leave after this stage with City, because I need to stop and focus on myself, on my body."

  In October, he quipped that he will "think" about a break in 2035, but jokes aside, the former midfielder is focusing on tasting success this season.

  "At the moment, I think I have the energy with my players to simply make a better season than last season. This is my target. I am never sitting here at the start of November and December and going to say we are going to win this or that," he said. "I see things that we are doing much better than last season and in every game, we are a little bit better. There is the margin that we can do better in many aspects and that gives me the energy that it's not job done. It's completely unfinished business. That's why I am here."

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  Guardiola 'enjoying this rebuild'

  Earlier this week, The Times reported that Guardiola was considering stepping away from the Citizens at the end of the campaign. But ex-player Paul Dickov cannot see that happening, especially as his side have their tails up once more after overseeing big changes in his squad. Moreover, the ex-Bayern Munich coach said he feels "the energy is back" at City following his 1000th game as a manager, which ended in a 3-0 win over Liverpool.

  He told Best Betting Bonuses, "He signed on for this season and next, and few people expected that. So I think he’ll do that, at least. Looking at Pep, even in the Club World Cup in the summer and the beginning of the season, he looks as enthusiastic and as driven as he was when he first came to the club. I think he's really enjoying this rebuild, getting these new players in, and getting them to play how he wants them to. They’re improving all the time. I'm not saying it looks like he's got his mojo back. I don't think that ever left, but he looks as fresh and as driven as he was from the first day he walked in the club, which is fantastic for everyone associated with Man City Football Club. Because it's not just the team. The atmosphere around the training ground, the staff, it's just a fantastic place to go into. Pep creates that environment for them all to do the best they can all the time." 

• Guardiola backed over Arteta

  Despite Arsenal sitting four points clear of City at the top of the Premier League table, Dickov thinks that Guardiola is still the best in the business in terms of coaching.

  He added, "Obviously, with my blue-tinted glasses on, I still think he's the best. I think he showed that in the game against Liverpool. City with and without the ball tactically were so much better than Liverpool. I think Pep looked at the midfield with the three that they have in it and they tweaked it a little bit. Rayan Cherki coming in from the right, Nunes pushing right on the wingers, with Nico O’Reilly and Jeremy Doku on the left, the players were coming off the line and the Liverpool players could not work out how they were getting outnumbered in the middle of the pitch. I just thought it was a tactical master class from Pep yesterday. A lot of people are saying that Pep's plan A is playing out from the back. He's showing this season that at times we need to go longer to [Erling] Haaland and go from there, that’s what we’ll do. But I thought yesterday the players – the players have got to go out there and execute the plan as well as they can – deserve credit. I thought from a tactical point of view, I thought it was top, top class and it shows that Pep still got it.

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  Guardiola to switch up tactics?

  This season in particular, Premier League sides have utilised the long throw with good effect. It appears the English top-flight is, once again, valuing the importance of set pieces but Dickov doesn't think Guardiola's side will follow suit. 

  "I don't think they've got anybody that can throw it that far, actually. Otherwise I'm pretty sure that they would have looked at it, because the one thing Pep does is make sure there's no stone unturned in what he does and the detail that he does. I think City is the only club that's not used long throws at all this season. I'm pretty sure if he thought it was going to benefit the team, he’d do it," he said. "But Pep does like to control the ball. The long throw-ins are great, but you've got to make sure that if you don't get the first contact, you've got to pick up the second balls. He might see that as a way of losing possession, and losing control of the game. So maybe that's another reason why he's not done it, because he loves his teams to have the ball. He loves to be in control of the game and sometimes with long throws, it can disrupt that a little bit."

شارك النجم المصري عمر مرموش في فوز مانشستر سيتي على ريال مدريد بهدفين لهدف، في إطار منافسات مرحلة الدوري بدوري أبطال أوروبا.

وعلى الرغم من تقدم ريال مدريد بهدف عن طريق رودريجو بتسديدة رائعة من داخل منطقة الجزاء في شباك دوناروما، إلا أن مانشستر سيتي تعادل عن طريق نيكو أوريلي في الدقيقة 35.

وفي الدقيقة 43 أحرز إيرلينج هالاند الهدف الثاني من ركلة جزاء حصل عليها نتيجة خطأ من أنطونيو روديجر.

اقرأ أيضاً.. مباريات مانشستر سيتي المتبقية في دوري أبطال أوروبا بعد الفوز على ريال مدريد

وكان الشوط الثاني قد شهد مشاركة النجم المصري عمر مرموش بديلاً للنرويجي إيرلينج هالاند صاحب هدف الفوز لفريقه من علامة الجزاء في الدقيقة 70. تقييم عمر مرموش في مباراة ريال مدريد ومانشستر سيتي

وفقاً لـ”سوفا سوكر” فقد حصل عمر مرموش على تقيم 6.5 من 10 على الرغم من أنه لم يسجل أو يصنع ولم يسدد أي كرة على المرمى.

وقام مرموش بتمريرة مفتاحية واحدة وتمريرتين ناجحتين آخرتين، ولمس الكرة 6 مرات وفاز بصراع هوائي واحد وخسر صراعين ثنائيين أرضيين.

Unlike last month, the current international break is an unwelcome escape from Premier League football for West Ham United fans.

Nuno Espírito Santo has seemingly worked his magic, and a team that looked incapable of a win just a few weeks ago have just beaten Newcastle United and Burnley.

One of the reasons the Hammers look so much better is that Freddie Potts has finally been given his chance to start in the first team.

The Barking-born star has been immense in the middle of the park, and the good news is that the academy is producing a few players who could be the next Potts, although they also lost a youngster who’s an even bigger talent than the 22-year-old.

West Ham's next Freddie Potts

The good news for West Ham fans is that their academy system continues to produce exciting prospects, some of whom could go on to become the next Potts in a few years.

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One of those youngsters is Preston Fearon, who joined the Hammers in 2022, signed his first professional contract last year, and then signed another just last month.

Jarrod Bowen has described the 18-year-old as a “special player”, and it’s not hard to see why, as, in addition to making 43 appearances across the club’s youth sides, he was also taken on the pre-season tour of America.

Like the Hammers’ new star, the youngster can play in several positions, but thrives as a tough-tackling, yet technically accomplished, central midfielder.

Another youngster who could be fighting for first-team minutes a few years from now is Isaac Thomas.

The 16-year-old Welshman just scored four goals during his second appearance for the U18S, and what’s even more incredible is that he did so from centre-back.

However, just like Fearon and Potts, his primary position is in the middle of the park, but he’s capable of filling in where he is needed.

Finally, while a little older, Mohamadou Kanté looks every bit as exciting.

Described as having “good anticipation” and being “very calm and composed on the ball” by one analyst, the 20-year-old Frenchman is also no stranger to scoring goals and could provide a similar presence to the middle of the park as Potts.

In all, West Ham have plenty of exciting youngsters coming through the ranks, but even so, they surely rue losing someone who is an even bigger talent than Potts.

The academy gem who is a bigger talent than Potts

West Ham have done relatively well at retaining their most promising academy talents over the years, but they were unable to do so with Divine Mukasa.

The incredible prospect joined the Hammers as a five-year-old, but in September 2023, he moved to Manchester City for free.

The 18-year-old phenom made his senior debut for City in September, in a League Cup game against Huddersfield Town, and as if that wasn’t impressive enough, he also provided an assist.

He also started the following game in the competition against Swansea City and has been on the bench for three Premier League games so far this season.

However, while a player his age starting two games for a club like City is certainly impressive enough, it’s his record for their youth sides which suggests he could be a future superstar.

Appearances

41

Minutes

2807′

Goals

17

Assists

25

Goal Involvements per Match

1.02

Minutes per Goal Involvement

66.83′

For example, in 41 appearances across various youth sides last season, totalling 2807 minutes, the former Hammer chalked up an outrageous tally of 17 goals and 25 assists.

That means the incredible superstar in the making averaged 1.02 goal involvements per game, or one every 66.83 minutes all season, which goes some way in justifying journalist Nassali Sandrah’s claim that he is “the best academy player in Europe.”

To top it off, the Newham-born gem has also won five caps for England’s u19s, and scored his first goal for them against Wales last time out.

Ultimately, there are some seriously exciting prospects emerging from West Ham’s academy at the moment, but it certainly appears that they have lost the biggest talent of all in Mukasa.

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In years past, Arsenal fans would have to watch an England team full of players from Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool.

It was a damming indictment of where the club was at that time, but over the last four or five years, things have changed.

It’s not unusual to see three or four of Mikel Arteta’s players in the Three Lions squad these days, and few from the white side of North London, which might explain the team’s uptick in quality and performances.

Thursday was another example of how important Arsenal have become for the national team, with Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze scoring the goals and Declan Rice marshalling the midfield.

There is no sign of this relationship between club and country slowing down either, especially as Hale End could be brewing England’s next superstar, who could follow in the footsteps of Rice and Saka.

Rice and Saka's England careers

So, while Arsenal fans would love to take the credit for moulding Rice into one of England’s most important players, West Ham United should get more of the credit.

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After all, he made his debut for the Three Lions in 2019, while playing for the East Londoners, and was still a Hammer for the Euros in 2021 and the World Cup the following year.

However, he has arguably become more instrumental to the national side since his move to the Emirates, and wore the captain’s armband for the first time in March 2024.

So far, the all-action midfielder has won 71 senior caps for England, in which he’s scored six goals and provided six assists and nine of those goal involvements have come since his £105m in the summer of 2023.

Now, an England star Arsenal can take full credit for is, of course, Saka, who is Hale End’s greatest product in a generation.

The 24-year-old made his debut for the national team against Wales in October 2020 and has since gone on to amass an impressive tally of 47 caps, in which he has scored 14 goals, provided nine assists and been named England’s Player of the Year twice in succession.

Moreover, he has played a significant role for the country in every major tournament since, despite receiving horrific abuse after the 2021 Euros final.

In all, so long as they remain fit, Rice and Saka should, and will, be two of the first names on Thomas Tuchel’s teamsheet at the World Cup, and in a few years, they could be joined by another Arsenal star, someone who could even surpass them in importance.

Arsenal's next England star

While the likes of Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly are surely going to become regular starters for England, the Hale End gem who could well become a superstar for Tuchel and Co is Max Dowman.

Despite still being just 15 years old, the teenager has been one of the most talked-about players at Arsenal this season, although for those in the know, he has been a subject of interest for longer than that.

For example, in September of last year, respected talent scout Jacek Kulig boldly proclaimed him as the “most exciting prospect” he had seen “since Lamine Yamal.”

As if that wasn’t praise enough, just a couple of months later, Hale End expert Will Balsam called him “the biggest talent in England” and described him as “one of the greatest footballing brains that’s ever come through Hale End.”

Now, while that all sounds somewhat hyperbolic, and perhaps to an extent it is, it’s not hard to see where they were coming from, considering he was just 14 at the time and destroying defenders in the U18S and even the U21S that season.

For example, he ended last season with a tally of 19 goals and five assists in 23 appearances, totalling 1945 minutes, which comes out to an average of 1.04 goal involvements per match, or one every 81.04 minutes.

Unsurprisingly, this saw him included in the club’s pre-season tour, where he made his first appearance in front of the fans against a physical Newcastle United side, but instead of shying away, he, in the words of analyst Ben Mattinson, started “humiliating Premier League players.”

Since then, he has made his Premier League debut, become the youngest ever starter for Arsenal, and broke the record as the youngest player in Champions League history.

In other words, the Hale Ender is looking like a generational talent, and he’s already making his impact felt on the international scene as well.

Even though he’s not turning 16 until New Year’s Eve, the Chelmsford-born gem is already a regular feature for England’s U19S, making six appearances for them, in which he’s scored one goal and provided two assists.

With his incredible performances, it feels like a matter of when, not if, he is handed his first senior England cap.

Ultimately, Saka and Rice are currently two of England’s most important players, but in a few years from now, Dowman could be up there with them, if not more important.

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