Pep Guardiola sends pointed message to critics waiting for Man City to fail
Pep Guardiola insists he continues to be driven by the haters who want him to fail.
The Manchester City boss feels he still has unfinished business - despite suggestions he feels he can do no more after winning the Club World Cup in Saudi Arabia last week. City have now won every trophy possible during Guardiola’s eight years in Manchester - but the Catalan feels that his critics are desperate to see him lose.
Guardiola said: “This is the business. When you don't win you are nothing, zero. As much as you win they want you to fail more than ever. I've felt that since day one in Barcelona, that people are waiting.
“What we have won, the titles, is unbelievable - and the people say 'how good they play, the methodology, how genius it is.' But it is because I win. They don't understand anything about what we do, but they give credit just because we win. You have to look further than that. In the moment you don't win there are going to be doubts - but that is what is nice. That is okay. Doubt us again. We'll see what happens.”
City’s triumph in the Middle East means they are the first Premier League team to win the title, Champions League, FA Cup, European Super Cup and Club World Cup in the same year. Only an injury-time Arsenal equaliser and defeat in the subsequent penalty shoot-out in this season's Community Shield prevented them from lifting trophy No 6.
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But City return to domestic action at Everton having fallen out of the top four. Asked what is left for him to achieve, Guardiola said: "We try it again. Not try it again to win five titles but just try again. The greatest athletes forget as quickly as possible the successes.
Manchester City were crowned Club World Cup winners on Friday (Getty Images)“There is a day to celebrate, but around the corner is another competition and you have to try it again. The satisfaction of what we have done will remain but we have to do it again. I have never started a season thinking 'how many titles can we win?' Never, never. It's a horrible approach. Next is Goodison Park. Further than that doesn't exist, not anything."
Guardiola believes it is the failures of his reign that drive his team towards more success. He added: “I’ve always had incredible players. I have said to the team, the reason why we are here is not Istanbul, it's not beating Inter Milan. The reason we are here is losing to Monaco, Liverpool, Tottenham and Lyon. It's because of the (Champions League) final against Chelsea, when we lost, and losing in the last minutes against Madrid.
“It hurt in that moment, but now it doesn't hurt. That helped us and helped us to win against Inter Milan. It's a process. For the big, big clubs they're used to that, but for us it was new.
“Now we believe we can win everywhere, we can win it. It's not just 'bring Pep here and immediately it happens'. It's a process. We arrived to finish eight years of the job with a lot of disappointments - but it's part of life and part of sport.”
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