Tag: Pep Guardiola

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has taunted Premier League leaders Liverpool over their failure to match his side’s record 100-point tally.

Guardiola’s troubled side are trailing 16 points behind Liverpool after their bid for a fifth successive English crown collapsed in astonishing fashion.

Liverpool are seven points clear of second-placed Arsenal as they chase a 20th title, which would equal Manchester United’s record.

But even if Arne Slot’s men go on to secure the trophy, they now cannot match the record points total set when City won the first of Guardiola’s six titles in 2017-18.

Responding to criticism of City’s spluttering dynasty after Tuesday’s 3-2 home defeat against Real Madrid in the Champions League play-off round first leg, Guardiola took a tetchy swipe at Liverpool.

“We took all the records in England. Who would do 100 points now in modern football? I’m waiting,” Guardiola told reporters on Friday.

“Or four in a row? I’m waiting – with clubs like Bournemouth, Fulham and Wolves that you have to play.

“The standards, we dictated. Have you seen Liverpool this season? They cannot do 100 points already – 99 but not 100.”

While Liverpool may not surpass fifth-placed City’s record mark, Guardiola accepts his team have fallen behind their rivals this season.

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“I asked ‘Gundo’ (Ilkay Gundogan) yesterday, ‘two years ago you were here, you were one year in Barcelona and you come back here, did you see changes in the Premier League?’,” said Guardiola, whose team host top four rivals Newcastle on Saturday.

“He said massively, the difference was unbelievable. It’s the truth. The teams are much, much, much better in all departments. People prepare so well.

“We cannot do it for the (injury) problems we’ve had. There are a lot of players, with the amount of minutes they have had, who are so tired, emotionally as well.

“But guys, we deserve to have a bad season. We deserve not to be like we were. They are human beings, it can happen. We weren’t consistent and we haven’t had the players at their best.

“It’s the first time that me and many of the players have lived this position but we have to accept it (and recognise) what happened in the past was not normal.”

Pep Guardiola believes the difference from previous successful seasons is that Manchester City are no longer making the most of their dominance of possession.

“I accept when the opponents have the ball, I’m going to suffer,” he said.

“But now we are suffering when we have the ball. It never happened before and, (right) now, I cannot change it. We are suffering because we are human beings.”

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Pep Guardiola said he would not “take another club” after ending his stint as Manchester City manager, although he left open the possibility of coaching a national team.

Shortly after signing a contract extension in November, Guardiola gave an interview in Manchester to visiting Spanish celebrity chef Dani Garcia, who posted the conversation on his YouTube channel.

“I feel this is enough. I’m going to stop. I’m not going to take another team,” Guardiola said. “I’m not talking about the long-term future, but what I’m not going to do is leave Man City, go to another country, and do the same thing as now.

“I wouldn’t have the energy. The thought of starting somewhere else, all the training and so on. No, no, no! Maybe a national team, but that’s different.

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“I want to leave it and go and play golf but I can’t. I think stopping would do me good.”

Pep Guardiola has previously expressed an interest in coaching at international level later in his career.

“That’s different. It’s not (training) every day, (playing) every three days,” he said. “To rest, to see what we have done, what we can do better because day-to-day we don’t have much time to rest.”

In a conversation that included his taste in food and his philosophy of life, Guardiola told Garcia that from the start of his career ,he had looked to one day having time to study French, play golf and learn to cook.

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Pep Guardiola has extended his contract as manager of Premier League champions Manchester City for a further two seasons, saying Thursday “I could not leave now” with the club facing arguably the toughest period of his time at the Etihad Stadium.

There had been speculation the 53-year-old’s City career could be coming to an end, with the club facing an uncertain future due to an ongoing hearing over 115 breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations. However, the club has completely denied the charges.

City are also currently on a four-game losing streak in all competitions — the worst of Guardiola’s managerial career, excluding penalty shoot-outs — although they are second in the Premier League, five points behind leaders Liverpool.

However, reports emerged on Tuesday that Pep Guardiola, who took over at Manchester City in 2016 and has since won a total of 18 trophies across all competitions, including six Premier League titles, would stay.

This was despite City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain, a close ally of Guardiola, having already confirmed his exit at the end of the campaign. Begiristain is to be replaced by Sporting Lisbon’s Hugo Viana, a former Newcastle player.

But with City on an English record-breaking run of four successive top-flight titles, Guardiola — who led the club to a Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League treble in 2023 — said he had changed his mind about this being his last season at the Etihad.

“Now I cannot leave,” the Catalan boss said in an interview on the club’s website after agreeing to remain at the Etihad until 2027. “Maybe the four defeats were the reason why I felt I cannot leave.”

Guardiola, who has repeatedly been asked about his future in recent weeks, added: “Since the beginning of the season I was thinking a lot at the moment, I will be honest, I thought (this season) should be the last one.

“But in the same moment the situation comes, the problems we have in the last month, I felt now was not the time to leave. I don’t want to let the club down, I would say.

“I felt the confidence from the chairman (Khaldoon Al Mubarak) and Txiki and everyone, and I had the feeling I have to do it.”

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Pep Guardiola said the treble, which saw City crowned champions of Europe for the first time in their history, represented a “dream come true”, while four Premier League titles in a row were “amazing”.

He insisted, however, that he still had a job to do to help City hit those heights again.

“But you have a past, (there have) been lessons and mistakes that we have overcome to arrive in the moment where you are more stable and more consistent,” he said.

“We have to recover that because right now we don’t have it and that’s the target we have to do.”

Guardiola, who previously enjoyed a trophy-laden career as a player and coach at Barcelona before taking charge of German giants Bayern Munich, said in an initial club statement: “Manchester City means so much to me… I have a really special feeling for this football club. That is why I am so happy to be staying for another two more seasons.”

Guardiola, who thanked the club’s Abu Dhabi-based owner Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chairman Ferran Soriano, Begiristain and the fans for their support, explained: “I have said this many times before, but I have everything a manager could ever wish for, and I appreciate that so much.

“Hopefully now we can add more trophies to the ones we have already won. That will be my focus.”

Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said: “Like every City fan, I am delighted that Pep’s journey with Manchester City will continue; allowing his dedication, passion and innovative thinking to continue to shape the landscape of the game.”

The influence of Guardiola, renowned for his possession-based style of football, extends well beyond the Etihad, with two of his former assistants — Mikel Arteta and Enzo Maresca — now in charge of Premier League rivals Arsenal and Chelsea, respectively.

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Pep Guardiola expressed hope that Manchester City will bounce back after his team suffered a fourth straight defeat for the first time during his stellar managerial career.

City’s 2-1 defeat at Brighton on Saturday came after losses to Tottenham in the League Cup, Bournemouth in the Premier League and Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League.

Guardiola’s men, chasing an unprecedented fifth straight Premier League title, are now five points behind leaders Liverpool after 11 matches in the English top flight.

“I was a football player and many times I lost a lot of games — four in a row, five in a row, six in a row,” said Pep Guardiola.

“I never expect different, the fact we won in the past, that we are special. People can believe that but it’s not true.”

Manchester City are struggling badly with injuries, with Ruben Dias, John Stones, Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish among those absent for the defeat at Bournemouth.

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“We are not consistent enough to maintain this level that helped us to win what we want for many years,” said Guardiola. “Hopefully in the future, we’ll come back, and if we don’t come back we’ll learn from that.”

City have been champions in six of the past seven seasons but it is not uncommon for them to stumble in the autumn.

Last season they won just one league game in six during a spell in November and December but recovered to retain the title.

“Don’t be complacent when you win a lot, know how difficult it is,” said Guardiola. “That makes us believe how difficult it was and how nice it will be when we win again.”

He added: “Right now we are not in our best, it’s obvious. But still, it’s November so hopefully we’ll come back step by step. Every game will be tough for every team. We’ll recover our best and then we’ll see.”

After the current international break, Manchester City face a testing run-up to Christmas with matches against Tottenham, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Manchester United and Aston Villa.

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Pep Guardiola insists Kevin De Bruyne will not leave Manchester City this season after reports the Belgium star could move to Saudi Arabia.

De Bruyne has just one year left on his current City contract and the midfielder revealed recently he has spoken with his wife Michele about his future plans.

“For Michele an exotic adventure is OK,” De Bruyne said in a hint that he could end his successful spell at Premier League champions City.

Saudi Pro League club Al-Ittihad were believed to be interested in De Bruyne. But UK press reports on Tuesday said City manager Guardiola had rejected any thought of the 33-year-old being allowed to walk away this season.

Speaking ahead of Manchester City’s friendly against Celtic in North Carolina, Pep Guardiola told reporters “Kevin isn’t leaving”.

Kevin De Bruyne returned after missing the first half of last season due to injury and helped City make history with a fourth successive Premier League title.

He has been with City since joining from Wolfsburg in 2015, winning 15 major trophies including six Premier League titles and one Champions League crown.

While Guardiola is adamant, that his influential playmaker will stay at the Etihad Stadium this term, it remains to be seen if he can persuade the Belgian to remain in Manchester longer than that.

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“My eldest (child) is now eight years old and knows nothing but England. He also asks how long I will play at City. Once the time comes, we will have to deal with it in a certain way,” De Bruyne said in a recent interview.

“At my age, you have to be open to everything. You talk about unbelievable amounts in what may be the end of my career. Sometimes you have to think about that.

“If I play there for two years, I will be able to earn an incredible amount of money.”

Meanwhile, Guardiola claimed City would not make major changes to his squad before their Premier League season kicks off against Chelsea on August 18.

Crystal Palace winger Eberechi Eze has been linked with the champions, while City goalkeeper Ederson has potential offers from Saudi Arabia.

“Of course, until the last day, we have chances (to make transfers), I don’t rule it out the option to have new players but I think there is an 85,90 per cent chance we will have the same squad,” Guardiola said.

“I feel comfortable, because the quality of human beings we have in the squad is difficult to be replaced, and the quality is there.

“But we’ll see, I don’t know in the last moment if someone comes for some players and they leave, we’re going to decide. If someone leaves, we’re going to talk about that.”

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Pep Guardiola cast doubt over his long-term future at Manchester City on Sunday after winning a historic fourth straight Premier League title, admitting it is difficult to find motivation after so much sustained success.

City’s 3-1 victory against West Ham sealed a sixth top-flight title in seven seasons under the Catalan, who has taken the club to extraordinary new levels since he arrived in 2016.

His tally is exceeded only by Alex Ferguson, who won 13 Premier League titles during his long reign at Manchester United.

In 2019 City became the first club to win the domestic treble of Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup in the same season and last year they emulated Manchester United’s class of 1999 in winning the treble of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League, which they lifted for the first time.

Manchester City are now the first side in English top-flight history to win four titles in a row — surpassing the achievements of the great Liverpool and Manchester United teams from previous eras.

And next week they will attempt to become the first English side to win back-to-back domestic doubles when they take on United at Wembley in the FA Cup final.

Former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola, 53, has a contract at the Etihad until the end of next season but his future after that is unclear.

“The reality is I’m closer to leaving than to staying,” Guardiola told Sky Sports. “It’s eight years, will be nine.

“Right now my feeling is I want to stay next season. We talked with the club, we have time to talk next season because I have to see the players as well (to see) if they follow me, they follow us, for many reasons. I will stay and during the season we will talk when calm.”

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Asked at his post-match press conference whether he felt as though he had “completed English football” and what he felt was left to achieve, Guardiola shrugged his shoulders and said: “I had that feeling last season.

“When we won in Istanbul (in the Champions League final) I said, ‘It’s over, what am I doing here? It’s over, there’s nothing left’.

“But I have a contract, I’m here and still enjoying. Some of the moments I’m a bit tired but some of the moments I love, and after I said ‘OK, we are here’.

“We start winning games, playing good, different players, new players and I start to think about ‘No one has done four in a row, why don’t we try?’ And now I feel ‘It’s done, so what next?’ I don’t know right now.”

He added: “Next season, right now, I’m not able to know exactly what will be the motivation to do it because it’s difficult sometimes to find it when everything is done.”

Pep Guardiola said for now he was enjoying basking in the glow of another Premier League triumph.

“When I moved here if someone had said I would win six leagues in seven seasons I would say you’re insane — no way,” he said.

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Pep Guardiola said Erling Haaland should be respected as the “best striker in the world” after the Manchester City star was subjected to scathing criticism by Roy Keane.

Former Manchester United captain Keane, speaking on Sky Sports, said Haaland’s “general play” was “so poor” and “almost like a League Two player”.

Haaland came under fire from Keane for his lacklustre performance in City’s goalless draw against Premier League title rivals Arsenal on Sunday.

Erling Haaland is the Premier League’s leading scorer this term with 18 goals after winning last season’s Golden Boot during a remarkable first season with City.

He netted 52 times in all competitions as Guardiola’s men lifted the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.

Keane conceded the 23-year-old Norwegian is in a class of his own in front of goal.

But City boss Pep Guardiola was unimpressed by Keane’s remarks, insisting any blame for the scoreless display against Arsenal should be shared by the team.

“I don’t agree with him, absolutely not. He’s the best striker in the world and he helped us to win what we won last season. Erling is exceptional,” Guardiola told reporters on Tuesday.

“The reason we don’t create chances is not because of Erling. The standards that Erling has are unbelievable and everyone expects other things.

“There are games where he could be better but I knew during the game against Arsenal that the reason why we were not creating chances was not because of Erling.

“We needed more presence in the box. If we had that Erling would have more space. It happens sometimes. If you want to score goals, bring a lot of players to the opponent keeper, it is as simple as that.”

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City’s failure to beat Arsenal has damaged their bid to win an unprecedented fourth successive English title.

They are three points behind leaders Liverpool ahead of Aston Villa’s visit to the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.

Pep Guardiola will need Erling Haaland at his predatory best if City are to extend their reign as champions.

And the Spaniard accepts that criticism comes with the territory of being a high-profile player.

“If you don’t want to accept that as a football player, you have to dedicate yourself to another job,” Guardiola said.

“When you are a public figure, you have to accept it. That’s why when you are in contract talks, you have to ask for a lot of money to accept those moments.

“I’m surprised it comes from former players. With journalists I can understand because they have never been on the pitch but the former players is always a surprise (when they are critical).”

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Pep Guardiola believes many people now want Manchester City to fail “more than ever” after the club won their fifth trophy of an outstanding year.

City return to English domestic action at Everton on Wednesday after adding the Club World Cup with a 4-0 thrashing of Brazilian side Fluminense in Saudi Arabia to their trophy cabinet, having already lifted the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and European Super Cup in 2023.

No club in English football history has enjoyed such a successful year, although Pep Guardiola won six trophies when in charge of Barcelona in 2009 when the Catalan side won La Liga, Copa del Rey, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup, Champions League and Club World Cup titles.

“It is a business, you get credit when you win,” City manager Guardiola said ahead of his side’s trip to Goodison Park. “You don’t win you are nothing, zero, what you have done in the past.”

The Spaniard added: “As much as you win, they want you to fail. More than ever. I felt than when we won the sextuple in Barcelona.

“It’s normal. They don’t want (us to win). In these 14-15 years what we have won, the titles, is unbelievable.

“People say ‘how good they play, how genius it is’. But they give credit just because we win. They don’t have to look further than that.”

Manchester City’s victory over Fluminense gave the Manchester side their first Club World Cup and capped a productive five days in Saudi Arabia that manager Pep Guardiola said had “created incredible team building and team spirit”.

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It was all in marked contrast to their recent Premier League form, with a run of just one win in six games leaving City fifth in the table, six points behind leaders Arsenal.

“In the moment you don’t win you are going to get doubts, absolutely everything,” said Guardiola. “But that is what is nice. That is OK. Doubt again, we’ll see what happens.

“I said before when we played incredibly well against Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Tottenham and don’t win.

“It’s a real proof they don’t care the way we play. We played the best levels quite similar to these (past) eight years and we don’t win. It’s a ‘disaster and crisis’.

“Of course we have bad moments like Aston Villa, who were better. But what’s the problem?

“They can play better so we have to accept it and move forward. The reality is we are happy, but they are waiting for us around the corner (to fail).”

But Guardiola, who spent Christmas with his family in Barcelona, insisted his focus now was firmly on Everton.

“Nothing else exists than Goodison Park,” he said. “The greatest athletes forget as quick as possible the success. They celebrate it, but around the corner is another competition.”

City are hoping Rodri will be after the Spain midfielder suffered an ankle injury against Fluminense, but they have doubts over the fitness of Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku.

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ISTANBUL: Manchester City’s manager Pep Guardiola issued a warning to Real Madrid after his side scripted history by winning their maiden UEFA Champions League title on Sunday.

Manchester City edged defeated Inter Milan 1-0 in a hard-fought final, held at the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul on June 10.

Rodri was the hero for Manchester City as he netted one in the 68th minute to separate the two sides who were indulged in a sea-saw battle.

While Manchester City held onto their lead and became the first-ever European champions, Inter Milan lost several golden opportunities to bring the score back to even.

Speaking to the media after a blockbuster season, Pep Guardiola issued a warning to the leading Champions League winner Real Madrid.

“Be careful Real Madrid, we’re 13 UCLs away but we’re coming for you. We are on our way! If you sleep a little bit, we will catch you,” said Guardiola.

Notably, Real Madrid are a record 14-time winners of the treble. Thus, Pep Guardiola’s side will have to make plenty of hard yards to catch up with the Los Blancos’ tally of titles.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City also came face to face with the defending champions Real Madrid in the semi-final of the Champions League.

The first leg of the highly-anticipated semi-final saw the two sides settling for a 1-1 stalemate after Kevin de Bruyne’s 67th-minute strike levelled Vinicius Jr‘s first-half goal.

However, Manchester City were at their absolute best in the second leg as they blew away the defending champions Real Madrid by 4-0 to set up a final clash with Inter Milan.

The 1-0 victory over Inter Milan at the Ataturk Stadium was a fitting conclusion to their incredible season. Pep Guardiola’s team was outstanding all season and was duly named champions.

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LONDON: Pep Guardiola said all thoughts about Manchester City’s Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid have been banished ahead of Sunday’s Premier League trip to Everton.

Treble-chasing City hope to claim a place in the final of Europe’s elite club competition when they host Real on Wednesday after drawing 1-1 in the first leg of their last-four tie this week.

City have never won the Champions League, while Guardiola’s wait to get his hands on the trophy has now reached 12 years since he lifted it for the second time as Barcelona boss.

Despite the significance of the Real tie, the Premier League leaders cannot afford to take it easy when they travel to relegation-threatened Everton in a clash that is crucial at both ends of the table.

Any slip-up at Goodison Park would open the door again to second-placed Arsenal, who are just one point behind City, although they have played a game extra.

“My thought is just Everton — no more than that,” Guardiola said on Friday.

“It’s 11 months working for the Premier League. We don’t have much time to Madrid because we play Sunday — thank you so much — but it’s a real, real priority, Goodison Park.”

Real have an extra day’s rest before the second leg as they are in La Liga action on Saturday.

Guardiola, whose team are targeting a fifth Premier League title in six years, would have preferred to play on Saturday too but says he is beyond complaining about the schedule.

“I can’t understand it but I’m not going to fight it anymore,” said the City boss. “I don’t understand it but we have to adapt. The schedule, it is what it is.”

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