MY ACCOUNT
Pep Guardiola insisted he would not swap any of his Manchester City players as they chase treble glory – batting away speculation about Erling Haaland.
City could match Manchester United’s 1998-99 feat of winning the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in one season, and Guardiola is no longer ridiculing that possibility.
They are a nose ahead of Liverpool in the Premier League and through to the quarter-finals of both knockout competitions, achieving such success largely without a recognised ‘number nine’ striker.
Haaland is the player most frequently linked with City, although Real Madrid and Barcelona are known to admire Borussia Dortmund’s prolific marksman too. A decision could reportedly come soon regarding Haaland’s future.
“Since I’m here, apparently every month, two months, we’re going to sign 50 players,” Guardiola said, when asked about the 21-year-old Norwegian. “Right now, listen, it’s impossible I’m going to talk about some guy who’s not here, and I don’t know if he will be here. He’s a Dortmund player.
“You can ask for this player or another one or another one. A transfer window is going to start, and many things are going to happen.”
Southampton provide the opposition on Sunday in the FA Cup, with Guardiola taking issue with a reporter who questioned whether it might be challenging to motivate his City players for the trip to St Mary’s.
Given City’s other targets and Liverpool’s rapid gain on them in the title race, some might consider the FA Cup a distraction, but not Guardiola.
“How do you ask me this, when we show in the last six years that we play every game in every competition like it was the last game in our lives?” Guardiola said.
“I know it looks like everything is gone, it is over, no chance of anything, but the manager still trusts a lot in his players to try to win every competition, being who we are.
“I want to do it with these guys. I would not change one single player to do these next two months we have ahead of us. Success? I don’t know.”
Since Guardiola joined City ahead of the 2016-17 campaign, Southampton have won just one of the 13 clashes between the sides (D3 L9), a 1-0 victory in July 2020 on home soil. City have drawn home and away in the Premier League with Southampton this season, however.
Guardiola was asked about how City have achieved spectacular success during his reign, while neighbours Manchester United have fallen short of delivering trophies.
United’s last major silverware came in the 2016-17 season when they won the EFL Cup and Europa League, and despite high investment in players since then, they have been unable to keep pace with City.
“I would love to give an opinion about that, not to help them, because I’m sorry, but I don’t have an opinion because I’m not there,” Guardiola said. “I don’t know the reason why. I think the team they have is fantastic. We cannot deny how good they are. But the reason why, I would say because the contenders are good too.”
Guardiola said City were enjoying success due to the financial backing they have, and the support he and his staff receive from club hierarchy, comparing this to United in the Alex Ferguson era and Chelsea during early years of Roman Abramovich’s ownership.
When it comes to others falling short, Guardiola said: “The difference in this club is there is strategy for many years. We lose, but this is the way.”
City are losing only very rarely these days, which means the treble dream lives on. They won the domestic treble in 2018-19, but now the three trophies they are chasing include the old European Cup.
“I would say in September, October, November, it’s more difficult,” Guardiola said. “But we have two months left and still you can be there to win the titles, it can be possible. On the other side, it happened once in the lifetime.”
