Man City move may happen: Guardiola
LONDON: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes it is possible that Lionel Messi’s €300million buyout clause could be activated. Messi has agreed to sign a new contract with Barcelona, though the five-time Ballon d’Or winner is yet to officially put pen to paper. With Messi’s signature missing from the Barca contract, the Argentine star has been linked with Guardiola’s City in the Premier League. Asked whether Messi’s buyout clause could be activated following Neymar’s €222 move to Paris Saint-Germain, Guardiola responded: “I don’t know. Someone might have if they have the money and want to spend it. It might happen.” Guardiola was speaking after 10-man City’s 1-1 draw at home to Everton on Monday. “We are here for the results, at least to win games. And to take a result,” said Guardiola, who refused to discuss the performance of referee Bobby Madley.
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City regularly struggled to kill teams off last season, drawing seven home games in the league, and when asked if his side’s latest display had brought to mind their travails from 2016-17, Guardiola replied: “Yep. We created three, four chances before the goal. They play man-to-man, six, eight players there, closing (down).
“(Ashley) Williams, (Phil) Jagielka, (Michael) Keane, (Leighton) Baines, all the guys, they are very good in one-againstone. We tried to find the way to attack them and we did it. (When the opposition) arrive once (in the box), score a goal, that can happen. Our amount of opportunities on target or close to the target was good. We were there all the time. We never gave up, with the spirit of the Mancunians.”
He added: “What we can do is try and create the chances. Maybe one day we’ll change, we’ll find it. “Last season we were the first or second team for creating clear chances. I think the first one. We just made (scored) 16 percent. In that level, it’s results. In our box, it was perfect. They arrived once. But OK, we will improve.”