Pep Guardiola: Manchester City will not match Arsenal's 'Invincibles'

Pep Guardiola expects Manchester City to lose before the conclusion of the Premier League season.

Their 21st of 38 fixtures concluded on Sunday in a 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace, leaving them undefeated and with the remarkable total of 19 victories.

That they also set a divisional record of 18 consecutive wins led to widespread descriptions of them as English football's finest ever team, and at Palace they avoided defeat when Ederson saved Luka Milivojevic's late penalty.

The Arsenal "Invincibles" of 2004 are widely recognised as among England's finest after they remained undefeated for an entire league season. They similarly narrowly avoided defeat at Manchester United when Ruud van Nistelrooy missed a penalty against them during a competitive 0-0 draw.

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Guardiola, however, does not believe their achievement will be emulated, and largely because of the improvement that has been seen in domestic football since.

"That is not going to happen," he said. "I am not thinking to be unbeaten. Maybe Arsene (Wenger) is worried about that but I tell him many times that 2004 run is for him.

"Today is completely different to 2004. Here are now more strong teams, a lot of competitions, a lot of games. That is not going to happen. I try to win the game, and especially focus on Watford (on Tuesday)."

The Spaniard, 46, also refused to rule out a fresh approach for Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez after Gabriel Jesus suffered a suspected knee injury at Selhurst Park.

City attempted to sign Sanchez, whose contract expires at the season's end and who Guardiola also once signed for Barcelona, during the summer transfer window.

Jesus is expected to be missing for up to two months and - when asked about Sanchez - the manager responded: "We will have meetings and see what is best.

"He is a player from Arsenal and I think he is going to stay at Arsenal. Now (the priority) is just to recover from today. Sometimes you ask for that but I have a lot of things in my mind. In two days, we have another game (at home to Watford). But now Alexis is an Arsenal player."

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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