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Tag: Pep Guardiola

  • Man City will not be banned from Europe – Guardiola

    Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says he has been assured by senior figures at the club that they will not be banned from European competition for Financial Fair Play irregularities.

    A series of allegations were made in Der Spiegel last month after what City said were “leaks” and an “organised attempt” to smear the club were passed on by the Football Leaks organisation.

    Reports this week suggested the claims could lead to City being banned should Uefa decide to take action, and a senior figure in European football told the BBC the entire credibility of FFP is at risk if Europe’s governing body and the Premier League do not fully investigate the allegations.

    However, after speaking to City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak and chief executive Ferran Soriano, Guardiola does not think the club have anything to fear.

    “We will not be banned, no,” he said.

    “That’s what I think because of what my chairman and my CEO have explained to me and I trust in them.

    “If it happens, because Uefa decide that, we will accept it and move forward.”

  • You can never relax in Premier League, says Guardiola after Watford win

    Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola has said ‘you can never relax in the Premier League’ after extending their lead at the top of the League to five points with a 2-1 win at Watford on Tuesday.

    The reigning champions had controlled Tuesday’s game and led through goals from Leroy Sane and Riyad Mahrez but Abdoulaye Doucoure scrambled in for Watford in the 85th minute to give the hosts hope of an unlikely comeback.

    Watford sent goalkeeper Ben Foster forward for set-pieces in a frantic finish, with Guardiola introducing defensive reinforcements to deal with the pressure, but the visitors held on for their seventh successive league win.

    The win saw City re-establish their five-point lead at the top of the table, which could be cut to two when Liverpool play Burnley on Wednesday.

    “We were much the better side – we deserved to win but you have to kill,” Guardiola said.

    “It is never over at 2-0, you need the third goal.

    “In the last few minutes they had chances. For five minutes they were better than us.

    “You can never relax in the Premier League, that’s why it is nice.”

  • Premier League has made me a better manager – Guardiola

    Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says the unpredictability of the Premier League has made him a better manager than he was in Spain or Germany.

    The Spaniard is in his third season at Etihad and led them to the Premier League title with a record 100 points last season.

    Guardiola delivered three La Liga titles and two Champions League trophies with Barcelona before leading Bayern Munich to three consecutive Bundesliga titles during his three years in Germany.

    But the 47-year-old believes his managerial skills have improved further since coming to England.

    “I am a better manager than I was in Germany, and I am a better manager now than I was in Barcelona by far, just for the fact of being there,” he said at the Peers Annual Lecture at Liverpool University on Wednesday.

    “Now, I feel being here I am a better manager too because I learned to handle this incredible league in many circumstances.

    Asked for his views on how the Premier League rated to other domestic competitions, Guardiola feels England’s top flight is the “most unpredictable”.

    “It is the toughest one, for the amount of games, for the weather and the referees saying: ‘play (on), play (on), play (on)’ and the competitors, there are many. It is the only country that five or six [teams] can win the Premier League,” Guardiola added.

    City return to Premier League action on Saturday away to West Ham holding a two-point lead over Liverpool at the top of the table, the reigning champions also already boasting a goal difference of +31 after 12 games.

    City’s Carabao Cup, Premier League and Community Shield wins in 2018 means Guardiola has now won 24 major trophies as a club manager, and he feels he will step into international management “sooner or later”.

    “I would like to be an international manager in a national team,” he said.

    “Sooner or later, it will happen because every three days I would like to be involved, but a little bit more calm, play more golf….now I do not have time to play.

    “So yes, sooner or later it is going to happen, if I have a chance and some international team wants to come ‘knock knock’. We will see.”

  • Pep Guardiola formally warned over referee comments

    Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has been formally warned by the Football Association over the comments he made about referee Anthony Taylor ahead of the Manchester derby.

    Guardiola went against FA rules by discussing the suitability of the appointment of the Cheshire official, who is from Wythenshawe, for the clash.

    Although Guardiola backed Taylor and dismissed accusations of potential bias, managers are not permitted to talk about referees ahead of matches.

    Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho was fined £50,000 in November 2016 for talking about Taylor ahead of a clash with Liverpool, but he was already on
    notice having previously been warned for a similar offence while Chelsea manager.

    Because this was Guardiola’s first such offence, and the nature of his comments was regarded as largely neutral, it is understood a charge was not deemed necessary.

    Guardiola said: “The referee doesn’t want to make a mistake because he knows everybody around the world is going to watch him. If he is a fan of United or City – everybody can be a fan of whoever he wants so no problem.”

    Taylor was widely praised for his performance in the match earlier this month, which City won 3-1.

  • I prefer sex by far to coaching – Guardiola

    Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has laughed off a suggestion his coaching is “better than sex”.

    The comment was reportedly made by Paris Saint-Germain defender Dani Alves, who is currently promoting a documentary about his time at Barcelona playing under Guardiola.

    Before Sunday’s Premier League home match against Manchester United, a reporter asked Guardiola for his reaction at a press conference, prompting him to respond: “I prefer the sex — by far.”

    The question may owe something to a mistaken interpretation of something Alves said in ‘Take the Ball, Pass the Ball’, a documentary looking at Guardiola’s time as Barcelona boss, which saw the Spanish club win the Champions League in both 2009 and 2011.

    Brazilian star Alves, referring to Barca’s late winner against Chelsea in the 2009 semi-final, said: “It is because of moments like this that we all love football. The only thing that beats it is sex.”

    Alves is one of many players to have cited the City manager’s coaching methods as inspirational, but Guardiola has played down such claims, making a passing reference to the struggles he had with former Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic when they were at Barcelona.

    “I can see a huge list who are on the opposite side,” said Guardiola, whose City team are both the reigning English champions and the current Premier League leaders.

    There is a list where they love me a lot, like Dani. They have another side from Sweden and other places where they don’t like me too much.”

  • Sterling is no longer scared – Guardiola

    Pep Guardiola says Raheem Sterling is a more mature and less “scared” player than the one he inherited when he first took over as Manchester City boss.

    Sterling scored two goals and made two more in Sunday’s 6-1 win over Southampton – a result that returns City to the top of the Premier League.

    He has scored six times in nine games in 2018-19, having scored 10 in his first season under Guardiola (2016-17).

    When asked what had changed in the forward, Guardiola replied: “His head.”

    The Spaniard continued: “The first season, he was scared, he was looking, who is the guy I am going to pass the ball to?

    “We spoke about that and said ‘try to score goals’. Now you have the feeling, where is the goal and go over there.

    “I have the feeling he is now enjoying scoring goals and making assists. He is becoming a winning player. He is stable and is focused on what he has to do to become a better player.

    “He is more mature now than he was when we first met at the club. He believes more in himself. Hopefully he can be more ambitious and think he can improve. He is 23 and he can be a better player.”

    Guardiola was asked if Sterling can now be considered amongst the world’s best players, but replied that the England international still has work to do to be ranked as such.

    “He is a top player but still is so young to be considered the world’s best,” said the City boss.

    “He is in incredible form, he is sharp, fast, clever, fighting, decisive, he can play both sides and can play in the middle and receive the ball between the lines and commit the centre-backs with a lot of aggressiveness.

    “It was an incredible performance but still with the young guys like him and Leroy [Sane] I would feel he can improve.

    “Still he loses simple balls, like the Tottenham game, when he made an amazing assist in the first few minutes but then lost a lot of balls.”

  • EPL: I can’t manage another English club – Guardiola

    Manchester City’s Spanish manager Pep Guardiola says it will be impossible for him to ever coach another club in England and says he is now a Mancunian for life.
    Guardiola, who led Manchester City to the English Premier League title last season with a record points tally of 100, signed a contract extension with the champions earlier this year.
    It will take him to the end of the 2020-2021 campaign.
    One of the most successful managers in world football, Guardiola has been known to keep his coaching stints brief, spending four years at FC Barcelona and three at Bayern Munich.
    However, even if he ended his stay at Manchester City after five years in 2021, he said he could not envisage one day managing an English Premier League rival.
    “I will be Mancunian for (the) rest of my life. I will (always) be a Manchester City fan. It will not be possible to train another club in England like Manchester City,” Guardiola said in an interview.
    “I feel beloved by the people here… I want to make a better club, to make them believe we are strong enough to do better things.”
    The 47-year-old won 14 trophies as FC Barcelona coach and seven while at Bayern, but said a less intrusive media landscape made it easier to settle as a manager in England.
    “I understand why in England you can stay at a club for 20 years in one place,” Guardiola, who also claimed the English League Cup for Manchester City last season, added.
    “Here, during the week, I don’t see the journalists and, for example, we had maybe some problems in the locker room, sometimes we have to be tough with players — but nothing goes out. Just a few times.
    “In FC Barcelona or in Bayern Munich everything that happened, the next time (day) it is in… the media. So, here you are more comfortable.”
    The former FC Barcelona player has won almost every major honour available to him as a manager.
    However, one of the prizes he still wishes to claim, is hearing Elton John sing live.
    “I’ve never been to a concert of his, it is a huge dream. I met him at Watford when we played there last season and it was a huge pleasure,” Guardiola said.
    Reuters/NAN

  • Man City don't feel ready to win Champions League – Guardiola

    Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has revealed his team are not ready to win the Champions League citing ‘the feelings’ from their fans that the club must win the competition is missing.
    City have gone out in the last 16 and quarter-finals of the competition in the Spaniard’s two seasons in charge.
    Guardiola, 47, charged the whole team to get motivated, saying “It’s one important thing to win this kind of title, you have to be pushed,”.
    “Not just by the manager, by everyone surrounding Manchester City.”
    He added: “And still we don’t have that feeling, the feeling that the fans are pushing that we have to win the Champions League.”
    City were knocked out of the Champions League by Monaco in Guardiola’s first campaign in charge then by Liverpool in the last eight last season.
    In their latest campaign, they go into Tuesday’s game at Shakhtar Donetsk second in Group F with three points from two games.
    “We are going to put in all effort to win this competition, but from what I saw last season we are not ready, that’s what I feel,” said Guardiola, who won the Champions League twice with Barcelona.
    “That doesn’t mean we are not going to try.”

  • Brazilian star Neymar reveals Guardiola as his dream coach

    The lure of playing for the Manchester City coach is one that remains tempting to the world’s most expensive player
    Neymar has reiterated his desire to one day play under Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.

    Paris Saint-Germain superstar Neymar missed the chance to feature under Guardiola at Barcelona, joining the club a year after the Catalan had left his role as head coach.

    Brazil forward Neymar spoke in January 2016 of his admiration for Guardiola, who enjoyed a spell at Bayern Munich between his jobs at Barca and City.

    “I have always wanted to work with Guardiola,” he told ESPN Brasil.

    “It’s different, I arrived [at Barca] after he left. I really want to work with him.”

    Neymar joined PSG from Barca last August in a world-record €222 million move, but has already been strongly linked with a return to La Liga and his former club’s great rivals, Real Madrid.

  • CHAMPIONS: Manchester City win Premier League title

    Manchester City won the Premier League title as Manchester United’s shock 1-0 home defeat by West Brom confirmed their rivals as champions.

    Second-place United are now 16 points behind Pep Guardiola’s side with only five games left to play.

    It is City’s third title in seven seasons and a first under the Spaniard in his second campaign in charge.

    They have dominated this year’s title race, scoring 93 goals and losing just twice so far.

    They could have made history and sealed the earliest Premier League title by beating United on 7 April at Etihad Stadium, but let slip a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2.

    That defeat came in between two losses to Liverpool as they were knocked out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage.

    However, Guardiola’s side did win the Carabao Cup by beating Arsenal at Wembley.

    The Premier League title is the 24th trophy of the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss’ managerial career.

    The 47-year-old has previously won league titles in Spain and Germany, as well as two Champions Leagues with Barca.

    Since Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan took ownership of the club in 2008, City have won seven trophies, adding an FA Cup, two League Cups and an FA Community Shield to their league titles.

    City’s season so far in stats

    City set a Premier League record of 18 consecutive wins on their way to the title, and have beaten every other side in the division this season at least once.

    They were on course to go the whole league season unbeaten before losing 4-3 to Liverpool at Anfield in January.

    Their match at Everton saw them retain 82.13% possession, the highest recorded in the Premier League, and they broke passing records, completing over 900 against Chelsea.

    They have only failed to score in a league match once this season and lead the stats in terms of possession, touches, passes, shots and goals.

    BBC