PREMIER LEAGUE
Guardiola: “When you’re at Barcelona, Bayern and City, you have more chance of winning”
Manchester City (and former club Barcelona) may have off-field issues to contend with but Pep Guardiola’s on-field magic continues.
These are interesting times for Pep Guardiola. His current club Manchester City are at the centre of one scandal in which they have been charged with more than 100 breaches of financial rules of a four-year period, while it has now been discovered that the club he is most associated with, Barcelona, are involved in another scandal in which they made payments to a company run by the vice president of the Royal Spanish Soccer Federation’s Referees Committee to provide them with information on referees and “treat them with neutrality.”
Guardiola is, of course, one of the world’s most successful soccer managers, past and present. Not only has he won a barrowload of trophies wherever he has been (10 league titles, nine domestic cups, two Champions Leagues), he’s done so with a style and a panache that we have rarely seen before. Guardiola is one of those figures whose ideas have redefined the way we watch soccer and the way his younger peers want to coach it.
What did Guardiola say about Manchester City’s charges?
Yet that has been pretty much forgotten about in the last couple of weeks as the clubs closest to his heart have become embroiled in legal battles and off-field controversy. Guardiola had previously said he would leave City if he found out that he had been lied to over the club’s finances but came out fighting when it was discovered they had been charged by the Premier League.
“My first thought is that we have already been condemned.”
“You have to understand that 19 teams in the Premier League are accusing us without letting us have the opportunity to defend in the words of my club, my owner, my chairman, my people. They explain everything during these three or four years. You know exactly on what side I am.”
“We are not part of the establishment, being in this league.”
City top of the Premier League after Arsenal win
On Friday, Guardiola spoke to the press the day before City’s trip to Nottingham Forest, a fixture which follows one which could be the defining match of the Premier League season. On Wednesday, the reigning champions moved to the top of the table (on goal difference) for the first time this term thanks to a 3-1 win at Arsenal, who had been eight points ahead of them not too long ago.
For Arsenal and Manchester United – five points further back – the table now has an ominous look to it but Guardiola revealed that he never expected his team to find a third successive league title easy to come by:
“There are still 15 games left, a lot of games. But we want to get to the last eight or 10 near the top of the league to make one last effort. We are in the position that I would have dreamed about at the start of the season, I could not expect to be many points ahead. After two titles it’s nearly impossible.”
Why is Guardiola “so good” at winning titles?
As well as praising Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish, and confirming that John Stones wouldn’t be available for the trip to Forest, Guardiola was also asked on why he was “so good” at winning titles and admitted that he did have it slightly easier that most given the club’s he has managed (although he sadly wasn’t asked about the impact of Barcelona’s “referee reports” during his time in charge at Camp Nou).
“I don’t know. Maybe when you are manager of Barcelona, Bayern and City you have more chance of winning titles, that’s an obvious answer. Because at this club, you have exceptional players and back-room staff helping a lot. I have had many assistants over the years and they have helped a lot.”