Manchester City 1-1 Southampton
MCI: Iheanacho 55’; SOU: Redmond 27’
Man of the Match: Virgil van Dijk, Southampton
MANCHESTER // After a long 90 minutes for Manchester City, a lengthy 50 minutes for their players. Pep Guardiola kept them in the dressing room for the best part of an hour after the final whistle.
The Catalan did his best to downplay the inquest, suggesting it was anything but crisis talks.
“We speak but it was nothing special,” he said in his news conference.
But City’s strong start has been followed by Guardiola’s joint longest run without a victory as a manager. Just as he did at Barcelona in February and March 2009, he has gone five games without a win.
Southampton emulated Everton in holding City 1-1 at the Etihad Stadium. Like Celtic, Tottenham and Barcelona, they benefited from individual errors that amount to a wider malaise.
City are idealists encountering practical problems adapting to Guardiola’s unique demands and ambitious vision. Their imperfections are increasingly costly.
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“We knew they would give us chances,” said Southampton scorer Nathan Redmond.
City did. “We concede a goal when the opponent did not make anything,” Guardiola lamented. It is a recurring theme.
Sides do not always need to create against City to score. After last week’s draw with Everton, Guardiola said: “There are stones, there are problems.”
He was referring to the rocky road of introducing his style of play, but it acquired another meaning when John Stones fashioned Southampton’s goal.
But City’s commitment to passing out from the back continues to cause them problems. Their willingness to overcomplicate things is the common denominator. Not for the manager, whose belief in his methods is undiminished.
“Today with John and Wednesday with Claudio [Bravo], that is not the reason,” he said.
For the second successive game, they gifted a goal. Stones’ ball to Bravo was under-hit and anticipated by Redmond.
He rounded the Chilean and shot into the unguarded net. Stones thought he had a redemptive equaliser, but he was wrongly given offside.
Instead, City’s leveller came from a specialist finisher. Xavi, the midfielder who played under Guardiola at Barcelona, once asserted that if the Spaniard had his way, he would field 11 midfielders.
He is the manager who fielded no strikers in the Nou Camp on Wednesday.
The merits of a specialist poacher were apparent, however, as Kelechi Iheanacho embarked on a damage-limitation exercise by sparing City a second successive defeat.
City had possession without penetration until his half-time introduction. The Nigerian had a pass completion rate of just 66 per cent but he shows an accuracy where it matters. He had one shot on target and scored one goal.
Guardiola, who threatens to render strikers an endangered species, spent 45 minutes playing with two.
With Sergio Aguero lacking sharpness, the lower-profile member of the attack levelled. Fernandinho supplied a wonderful cross-field ball, Leroy Sane an enticing centre, Iheanacho an inch-perfect finish.
Iheanacho’s propensity to change games means he has the status of an impact substitute. It is a mixed blessing for him, a boon for managers.
Guardiola being Guardiola, he attributed the comeback to a collective improvement, but a winner proved elusive. Southampton defended admirably with Virgil van Dijk outstanding.
“We had a fantastic spirit and a strong organisation,” said manager Claude Puel, whose side have only conceded three goals in nine games.
Yet City were not at their fastest or most fluent. They are short of confidence and crispness alike.
“You are able to win 10 times in a row and after you are not able to win five times,” said Guardiola.
“So I have to discover the reason why and I am going to fight for that.”
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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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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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1.
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United States
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2.
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China
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3.
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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6.
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Canada
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Singapore
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8.
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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10.
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South Korea
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