Declan Rice is on the verge of completing a move to Arsenal from West Ham (Picture: Getty)
Manchester City chief executive Ferran Sorriano insists the Premier League champions will not alter their transfer strategy after pulling out of the race to sign Declan Rice.
The Premier League champions appeared ready to go toe-to-toe with Arsenal in an effort to sign the West Ham captain when they matched the Gunners’ bid earlier this week and offered a deal worth £90million.
After that bid was swiftly rejected, Arsenal finally opted to meet the Hammers’ £100million asking price which prompted City to drop their interest in the combative midfielder.
It far from the first time big-spending City have walked away from a potential deal with the likes of Kalidou Koulibaly, Alexis Sanchez and Marc Cucurella having been forced to settle for moves elsewhere having appeared, at various points, destined for the Etihad Stadium,
Explaining City’s strategy, Sorriano, speaking at the announcement of a new sponsorship deal with cryptocurrency giants OKX, said: ‘If you look at what we did at the start of this project, there was a need for a lot of changes and investment – but not anymore.
Manchester City made a £90million offer for Declan Rice (Picture: Getty)
‘If you look at what we have done in the last five years, our level of investment in new players is well thought out.’
The dust has hardly settled on City’s historic treble success but they are already planning for next season with a deal for Josko Gvardiol nearing its completion.
Sorriano believes City are fortunate to have retained the services of Pep Guardiola and believes the stability at the club accounts for the recent success.
He said: ‘How many coaches did we have in the last 10 years? Two – Manuel Pellegrini and Pep Guardiola. How many football directors? One – Txiki Begiristian.
‘Part of the success is to be consistent and resilient and not panicking when we lose. I’ve seen at City when going to breakfast the morning after the games we have lost and it’s like a funeral and people are really p***ed off.
More: TrendingTriple threat transfer target Victor Osimhen ‘only willing to join two clubs’Aston Villa reach agreement to sign ex-Man Utd target in £30m dealManchester United make Moises Caicedo decision after Mason Mount deal
‘That’s when you have to show resilience but also intelligence to think ‘today is not the day to make decisions.’ This is part of the reason why we have been successful in the last decade.”
Soriano added: ‘Other people take decisions based on emotions. We take conscious decisions and we take time to think about it. A little joke inside the group is we say ‘no decisions on Mondays’ because you might be affected by the result at the weekend.
‘We can lose games – significant games – and we say we can be very sad and angry for 24 hours. But in hour 25 we have to come back and think about the next game.’
MORE : Barcelona trying to sign Arsenal target Arda Guler, confirms Joan Laporta
MORE : Kieran Gibbs questions Mikel Arteta’s plan for new Arsenal signing Kai Havertz
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
