Moment of truth for Pep Guardiola and Manchester City: the Champions League suspension hovers over the club like the sword of Damocles – and now comes Real.
Last season could not have gone better for Manchester City at national level: All the titles went to the Skyblues. Championship, FA Cup and League Cup and the Super Cup were all won by the Citizens.
But the sobering conclusion from coach Pep Guardiola was, “It was an outstanding season, but people say, ‘But you didn’t get the Champions League.'”
There’s one sentence in particular that seems to catch up with the Spanish starter coach: “I know I’ll be remembered as a failure if we don’t win the Champions League.”
It’s Guardiola’s biggest flaw, if you’re looking for one in him.
The football perfectionist has twice won the coveted Henkelpott as coach, both times with FC Barcelona. In 2008/2009 and 2010/2011, “his Barca” inspired the football world.
After a successful excursion to Germany, where he dominated with FC Bayern, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan guided the successful coach to his project: Manchester City.
City’s crazy editions
Since 2009, Al Nahyan has steered the club’s fortunes. The member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi has since invested more than 1.5 billion euros (!) in the sky-blue part of Manchester.
When Guardiola was signed on in 2016, the club assured him complete control of the transfers – a wish that the Bavarians denied the Spaniard at the time. And probably one of the reasons for the split.
uardiola assembled his winning team at City, as is otherwise only known from computer simulations of football. If you add up the investments under Guardiola, he brought in players for a total of 776 million euros.
The highlight of the shopping tour was 2017/2018, when 317.5 million euros were spent. Although 91.5 million euros were on the revenue side, the bitter consequences of years of financial management are well known: City was recently suspended for two years in the premier league – for “serious” violations of the guidelines of financial fair play. A ruling against which the club appealed today, Wednesday, before the International Court of Sport CAS.
It is not without a certain irony that Guardiola and City spent more money than any other club, but did not even advance to the semi-finals of the Champions League.
Even though the football the Spaniard is having celebrated is probably the best the football world has seen in recent years. His opponent Jürgen Klopp also emphasizes this: “They have played sensational football and helped the Premier League to improve,” praises the German coach of Liverpool FC. “I always admire what they do – and what pep does.”