Pep Guardiola has told Kyle Walker he is still angry with him for his December dismissal against RB Leipzig which leaves Manchester City without a specialist right back and short of defenders for Wednesday's Champions League last-16 second leg against Sporting Lisbon.
With Joao Cancelo ill and both Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias injured, City only have three defenders and just 14 senior players available, leaving Guardiola with a decision over whether to put the veteran midfielder Fernandinho into the back four or to parachute in a youngster from the academy.
Walker is suspended after kicking out at Leipzig’s Andre Silva in a dead rubber for City, who had already qualified from the group, and Guardiola revealed he disagreed with the club’s decision to appeal against his three-match ban, in a failed attempt to reduce it to two.
The right-back will also miss the first leg of the quarter-finals, which City, boasting a 5-0 lead after their first leg in Portugal, seem very likely to reach. Guardiola is likely to omit Kevin de Bruyne, who is a booking away from a ban, to ensure the midfielder can feature in the last eight, but he remains annoyed with Walker for his needless red card.
Guardiola said: “He deserved the three-game ban. When a player does a stupid thing, he deserves to be banned for three games. I'm not so kind to Kyle in this kind of action. I'm still so angry with him.
“It's not necessary to discuss with him, he knows it. Kyle is so important for us, you saw the game he played against [Manchester] United? But in Leipzig, when we had already qualified, 80 minutes in and he made this kind of action? He deserves the three games. The club appealed but I did not agree. Hopefully he learns for the future.”
The 18-year-old Luke Mbete, who has only made two senior appearances, is a defender who could get an opportunity but Guardiola admitted he does not yet know who his right-back will be. John Stones, who can play there, is needed in the middle of defence without Dias and Ake.
“Fernandinho maybe, we’ll speak with some players, we are going to speak about the academy,” Guardiola said. “We are in a little trouble in the back four.”
Sporting Lisbon 0 Manchester City 5 - in pictures
Oleksandr Zinchenko is set to play, despite the trauma caused by Russia’s military operation in his native Ukraine. Ake is expected to be fit soon, but Guardiola said he cannot afford to gamble by rushing the Dutchman back. “It is too risky and with Ruben out for a long time we cannot lose another central defender,” he explained.
Fernandinho turns 37 in May and is out of contract in the summer but Guardiola hopes City sign the Brazilian up for a ninth campaign.
“I would love it,” he said. “I am so glad to have him. He is an incredible captain. At the end of the season, Txiki [Begiristain, the director of football] and the club have to decide.”
Fernandinho already exerts a huge influence off the field and Guardiola argued the midfielder has the potential to become a fine manager as he identified similarities with his former assistant Mikel Arteta, now in charge of Arsenal.
“In terms of how the people respect them, definitely,” he added. “After knowledge and passion [comes the] licence to be manager, I’m pretty sure when a holding midfielder is thinking about the team, he has everything to become a manager.”
Guardiola guarded against complacency, saying: “We start the game 5-0, but it is not done. Football is unpredictable in many cases. Red cards can be a distraction.” As Walker proved.
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Name: One Good Thing
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Based in: Dubai
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Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
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