Wenger - What I respect about Guardiola

Arsene Wenger says he respects Pep Guardiola for his attacking mentality and “positive approach” to football.

The Spanish manager joined Bayern Munich in 2013 after a successful four-year spell with Barcelona, and has guided the German side to back-to-back Bundesliga titles in the last two campaigns.

Bayern are undefeated in the league this season, scoring 33 times in the process, and Wenger has credited Guardiola’s forward-thinking philosophy with the Bavarians’ success.

Guardiola also won seven La Liga titles during his time as a player with Barcelona and Wenger revealed that he could have signed the defensive midfielder in his early days as Arsenal manager.“His teams always play positively and always attack,” the Arsenal manager said. “He has a very positive mentality and a very positive approach in terms of football. I think that’s why he fits well to Bayern. He’s become a very big manager.”

“He wanted to play under me, yes,” Wenger said. “I met him and he wanted to play for Arsenal. He was already 30 or 31 at the time I think.

“He went to Italy afterwards and I had players at the time like Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit, who were very young and played for the national team. At that time, he already showed a big personality.”