Picture Credit: Twitter
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes that winning the Champions League isn’t an obsession and that his future in Manchester will not depend on European success. Guardiola, who has a contract till 2023, has helped City win four Premier League titles but hasn’t found similar success in the Champions League
Pep’s best result with Citizens came in the 2020-21 season, where they reached the final and lost to Premier League rivals Chelsea in a gruelling 1-0 defeat. "My life doesn't depend (on the Champions League). I'd like to do it, everyone tries to do it. It's not an obsession," Guardiola told the media before their 2022-23 season opener against West Ham United on Sunday.
Guardiola has lifted the Champions League trophy twice with Barcelona and added that he was motivated to improve Manchester City despite a successful spell since arriving from Bayern Munich in 2016.
"To improve the team and play better. This is the main thing for me. The only thing I'm here for is to make the team play better, and the players individually to play better," he said. "Everyone knows the titles are there but I'm not thinking what will happen in 11 months if we win or lose... this is the only thing," he added. If we win it will be genius, if we don't we will be failures. Nothing is going to change."
Pep also talked about the outgoing transfers of the team and wished his former player the best of luck for the future. “It is a good question. Always I thought after five or six years together we need to change - changing the manager is an option, or changing a few players. Always,” Guardiola asserted.
“But at the same time I can tell you, for the personalities they have - Gabriel, Raheem, Oleks, Fernandinho - would they not be hungry if they stayed with us? Absolutely not. I know them. They would be the same guys that we know them.”
“If this transfer window didn’t happen the way it has happened and these four players were still here, I think we would be the same team with the same desire to do well. But it has happened and we are going to adapt the new ones and desire all the best for the guys that have left as all of them deserve it.”
