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Tag: Guardiola

  • Why I signed new City contract – Guardiola

    Why I signed new City contract – Guardiola

    Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has discussed his new contract today.

    Ahead of tomorrow’s Champions League clash with Olympique Marseille, Guardiola was asked about his new three-year contract.

    He said, “The reason why I extended my contract is the club. The PL is fantastic and always has been, around the world it has a special attraction for everyone to watch. I have a feeling we are going to do good things together for the next years.”

    Guardiola was also asked if his tactics have been worked out by rival managers.

    Reflecting on defeat to Tottenham, he continued: “Do you think we change from the first season? The first action was not a counter, they ran two times in 90 minutes and the second one they were brilliant. We conceded one, two counter-attacks, another was offside and no more.

    “We shot more, crossed more, didn’t concede a corner. We cannot expect to create a lot against Tottenham but even with that we tried to find a way but even with that we created. Aside from Liverpool, all teams defend so deep and we have to find a way to avoid but I don’t think counter-attacks are the big problem, I think the fluidity to attack is the target that we and I have to improve to know exactly what we have to do.”

  • Pep Guardiola agrees new Man City contract

    Pep Guardiola agrees new Man City contract

    Pep Guardiola has reached an agreement with Manchester City to extend his stay at the Premier League club by an additional two years, with his new contract running until the summer of 2023.

    The 49-year-old has won two Premier League titles, the FA Cup and three League Cups since joining in 2016.

    Guardiola told City’s website: “We have achieved a great deal together, scored goals, won games and trophies, and we are all very proud of that success.

    “Having that kind of support is the best thing any manager can have.”

  • Football may face second COVID-19 lockdown – Guardiola

    Football may face second COVID-19 lockdown – Guardiola

    Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola said football must accept its fate if lockdown extends to professional sport for a second time in England amid the coronavirus pandemic.

    Guardiola expressed a concern that many businesses are under threat at a time when football, albeit without fans, may get a special pass from the UK government.

    Prime minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday that the Premier League would be allowed to continue behind closed doors, during a four-week national lockdown that will see business such as non-essential shops close their doors, along with pubs and restaurants.

    Guardiola, who was speaking after a win at Sheffield United on Saturday, “It’s difficult,” he said.

    “I know the prime minister is taking the decision because the situation is getting worse. It happened in Spain, Germany and France. Everywhere.

    “So the virus is still there. Maybe people say it is stronger. I think the world of football cannot be an exception in what is happening in society.

    “So if we have to play, we will play. But we don’t want to be different from the rest of society when they have to close restaurants or close whatever.

    “It’s a position in which I am not involved. I want to be safe. I want to keep well for myself, for my family, my friends, for all England, all of the UK. But honestly I don’t know.”

  • City boss Guardiola insists no Messi regrets

    City boss Guardiola insists no Messi regrets

    Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola insists there’s no regrets missing out on Barcelona star Leo Messi.

    City were favourites to land the Argentine before he withdrew his transfer request.

    “It’s a joy to work with these players and this club,” the manager said. “We have good expectations to do good football and get the results this club deserves. We want to continue the consistency.

    “Leo explained his feelings quite well,” Guardiola added. “I don’t have anything to add. He’s a football player for Barcelona, the club I love. Nothing else to say.”

    Guardiola was also asked how new signings Nathan Ake and Ferran Torres are settling in.

    “What you have to do, all the players and staff, all the people close to them, is help them settle as soon as possible,” he said.

    “They are two nice people and they are going to help us.”

    On City’s transfer activity, Guardiola added: “Since I arrived here I’m more than satisfied with what I have in the team, and I know the club does absolutely everything.

    “Sometimes it’s the players who decide to move. But never before or in the future will I complain about this – I am a lucky person to be in this club.”

  • Argentines hoping for Messi-Guardiola reunion at Manchester City

    Argentines hoping for Messi-Guardiola reunion at Manchester City

    The news that Lionel Messi wants to leave FC Barcelona may have shocked the football world but his fellow Argentines back his decision.

    Now they are excited by growing reports of a reunion with coach Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.

    One of Argentina’s top newspapers reported that Messi believes his time in Barcelona is over and has decided to move to Manchester.

    La Nacion said Messi was planning to talk with Guardiola to help hasten a move to England.

    However, FC Barcelona looked unwilling to let go of their prize asset for nothing.

    A Spanish sports lawyer has already warned any move could involve considerable legal wrangling over Messi’s contract with the Catalan club.

    However, the growing number of reports linking him with Manchester City sat well with fans in Messi’s homeland.

    “It seems to me this is the moment for him to abandon the comfort zone that he was in,” Gustavo Lopez, a Customs official walking in central Buenos Aires, told Reuters. “This is a challenge for him.

    “For me, he has to go to Manchester City with Kun (Sergio) Aguero and Pep Guardiola.

    “I think he should do it, the time is right to try and see if he can play somewhere else because until now he has always done well where he was. So, let’s now see if he can do it somewhere else.”

    Manchester City are favourites to sign the six-times world player of the year who has won every major title with FC Barcelona.

    Some of his career highlights at Barca came under the guidance of Guardiola, who is now Manchester City manager, and the prospect they might team up again is mouth-watering.

    “There are always cycles (in life) and cycles come to an end and it is good that he goes down another path,” said Facundo Silva, a 45-year old hairdresser.

    “As a Boca Juniors fan I’d like to see him play Boca but that’s impossible. I think that wherever Guardiola is he will do much better than now because FC Barcelona has practically come apart. I hope he does well at another club.”

    Messi has long said he hopes to one day play at his boyhood club Newell’s Old Boys in Rosario but that appears unlikely for now.

    The wise money is on the 33-year-old going to a European club, with Inter Milan and Paris St-Germain (PSG) among those suitors mentioned.

    These are clubs which can compete for the UEFA Champions League, a title Messi last won in 2015.

    “He is at the age at the end of his career and he has to make a decision that is not about money, it’s about looking for something new,” said Horacio Uriarte.

    “And, as he is a winner, he’ll look for a club that can help him win.”

  • Transfer: Guardiola responds to City-Messi links

    Transfer: Guardiola responds to City-Messi links

    Pep Guardiola has reiterated his desire to see Lionel Messi remain at Barcelona, with the Manchester City boss refusing to be drawn on speculation suggesting that he could be reunited with the Argentine in England.

    Speculation regarding a move away from Camp Nou for a six-time Ballon d’Or winner has surfaced again over recent weeks.

    It is not the first time that Messi has seen a switch mooted, with an all-time great holding obvious appeal to any team on the planet.

    Reports have, however, suggested that Messi has shelved talks in the present as he waits to discover in which direction a rather rudderless Blaugrana side will head from this point.

    “I’m not going to speak about transfers until the end of the season,” said the former Barca boss.

    “My wish is that Messi is going to stay in Barcelona.”

    Goal

  • Guardiola donates one million euros to fight coronavirus in Spain

    Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola has donated one million euros ($1.08 million) to help buy medical supplies for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in his native Spain.

    The former FC Barcelona boss gave the money to the Medical College of Barcelona to buy “medical equipment that is currently lacking in health centres in Catalonia,” the body said in a statement.

    His donation will also be used to produce ventilators to treat patients and protective gear for health care workers in Guardiola’s northeastern region of Spain.

    Meanwhile Barcelona’s Hospital Clinic said it had received a donation from FC Barcelona captain Lionel Messi to help it fight the virus.

    “Thank you Leo, for your support and commitment,” the hospital added in a tweet.

    While the hospital did not say how much money the player donated, Catalan sports daily Mundo Deportivo said it was one million euros.

    With the pandemic spreading across the world, Spain has been one of the worst-hit countries, logging the third highest number of deaths with the latest toll standing at 2,696, and the total number of infections nearing 40,000.

  • City in trouble if Madrid come for Sterling – Guardiola

    City in trouble if Madrid come for Sterling – Guardiola

    Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, has admitted the club will be in trouble if Real Madrid come for Raheem Sterling.

    Sterling, in a recent interview, hailed Madrid as a “fantastic club”.

    It comes amid City’s two-year European ban from UEFA, with most of their players’ futures now uncertain.

    Although Guardiola insisted that he cannot question Sterling’s commitment, he accepted that Madrid and Barcelona are the world’s most powerful clubs.

    He told reporters on Friday: “All the clubs have to know that when Real Madrid or Barcelona knock on the door, the other clubs must tremble.

    “That they will be a little bit in trouble.

    “But, on the same point, you see the commitment from Raheem, every single day when he arrives.

    “I don’t know if Madrid or Barcelona call his agent, but I don’t have any doubts about his commitment from the first day to the last day that Raheem and other ones have had – and will have – until the end.”

  • UEFA Ban: Guardiola speaks on quitting Man City

    Pep Guardiola insisted on Wednesday that he will stay with Manchester City, dismissing rumours he will hit the exit door following the club’s two-year ban from European competitions by UEFA.

    Guardiola vowed that the “truth will prevail” at the end.

    “If they don’t sack me I will stay here 100 percent more than ever. First because I want to stay. It’s something special, more than the contract I have,” Guardiola told Sky Sports after Wednesday’s 2-0 win against West Ham at the Etihad Stadium.

    “I said before, I say now, I want to stay and help the club and maintain this level as long as possible.

    “When I said I love this club I like to be here, why should I leave? No matter what happens I will be here next season.”

    City were banned from the Champions League and Europa League for the next two seasons and fined 30 million euros (£24.9 million) on Friday after UEFA found them guilty of committing “serious breaches” of financial regulations.

    The Premier League champions overstated sponsorship revenue in accounts submitted between 2012 and 2016, according to European football’s governing body.

    The severe punishment will cost City an estimated £170 million in lost Champions League revenue and the club reacted furiously, immediately vowing to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

    Amid speculation that Guardiola could quit if they lose the appeal, the City manager used his first public comments since news of the suspension broke to make it clear he will not desert the club whatever happens in court.

    That was the best possible news for City fans, who will hope Guardiola’s faith in what he has been told by his bosses proves wise.

    Guardiola said City’s Abu Dhabi-based owners told him the ban was unfair and he supports their decision to appeal.

    “It’s not finished. The club believes it’s unfair so we are going to appeal. When someone believes they are right they have to fight,” he said.

    “We are going to fight like we have fought every single game. We are optimistic that at the end the truth will prevail and next season we will be in the Champions League.

    “All we can do on the pitch is what we have done the last four years and focus on that until the end of the season.

    “I trust 100 percent completely my club what they have done. They explained to me the reasons why.”

    After scoring City’s second goal against West Ham to cap a man of the match display, Kevin De Bruyne insisted his team-mates will stay focused despite speculation that some of them will ask to leave if the ban is not lifted.

    “Obviously we were on holiday when the statement happened and I think we came back and we played football and the situation is what it is,” De Bruyne said.

    “We trained like normal and in the end nothing really changes for us – we just play the games that we have. Even today we gave a good performance and we still have a lot to play for.

    “I think the team gave their statement, so I don’t know as players what else we can do.

    “We can just play football and in the end the situation will show what it can show.”

  • I miss Guardiola – Arteta

    I miss Guardiola – Arteta

    Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, has admitted he misses Pep Guardiola.

    Arteta worked as Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City for three years, before he replaced Unai Emery at the Emirates in December.

    The Gunners are currently in 10th place in the Premier League, while City have fallen 22 points behind leaders Liverpool.

    Arteta, who is currently with the Arsenal squad in Dubai, says he is still in contact with Guardiola and was “privileged” to have learned from him as a manager.

    When asked by reporters whether he missed Guardiola, Arteta said: “Absolutely. I am a big friend of his and I admire him. I had a lot of joy working together and success. We spent a lot of time together and he is a friend.

    “I always talk with him. He is a really good friend of mine. I respect him so much. We share a lot of things in our life and we discuss everything.

    “I have to apply my own things. He was part of my development as a person to go through a lot of things I experienced next to him.

    “It was a privilege and of course a lot of the things I took on board, that I felt from my time at Barcelona, we shared together and a lot of things I learned from his management.”