I think it’s important to note that our depth looks so great because of Pep. The level he coaches guys up to makes some dudes look a lot better and more valuable here than they would at other clubs.
It wasn’t too long ago people was saying “city can afford to have Zinchenko and Jesus on the bench what a luxury they’d be starters at other clubs ” and now at Arsenal people think they not all that. As good as I think Akanji and Ake are I don’t have any reason to believe they’d be this good at another club especially Akanji Dortmund fans where happy to see him go and at city he’s a reliable defender and Pep got him helping our play in midfield like Stones. Lowkey think the same about Alvarez as well he’s really good but people would see his flaws more if he was the main main striker at a club. Haaland presence and the role he’s being asked to play has shielded him from some criticism he would’ve already gotten if he was the main striker.
Going back further I remember the talks of stones being a flop, Sterling not having been worth it (even though I personally always pushed back on that) dudes like Otamendi being a flop who wasn’t worth it. Pep helped turn Sterling into a world better with us for a couple years maximizing his potential, stones is now our best cb when fit imo at worst second best and otamendi made the premier league team of the season the first title pep won with us playing him. Same season delph was balling playing left back and he’s doing nothing now.
We spend a lot but we all know a players price tag don’t equal their quality we benefit a lot rn from having a manager that can maximize these players qualities that I know other managers couldn’t. Our rate of 50 mil flops or not doing as much was more common before he became manager.
