This team are class above ’68 champs

PEP GUARDIOLA is hungry to retain this Premier League title but sadly I can’t see him staying at Manchester City for the long term.

He has agreed a new contract yet, unless he falls head over heels in love with Manchester, I don’t think he’ll be here for more than three or four years.

Managing at the top these days takes it out of a coach and the commitment Pep particularly gives to the cause will wear him out.

It’s not like the old days when you’d knock off on May 7 and go to the beach for a few weeks before coming back refreshed. A coach’s job today is allconsuming and this guy puts everything into it. His team are a one-off. I’ve been asked how they compare to the teams I played in or the one that won the league 50 years ago. The answer is that this City team are incomparable. The style of football has been incredible.

Many thought it couldn’t work here, also after last season, but Pep thought it through and has really engaged the players.

It’s been intriguing to watch and you can see the hallmarks of the ‘Total Football’ style advocated by the Ajax team of the Seventies which Johan Cruyff would then have impressed on Pep at Barcelona. Everyone can play.

The key change for me was the goalkeeper. I’ve got friends in Portugal who told me how good Ederson was at passing but I never thought he’d be able to get away with it here once teams started pressing.

Boy, can he kick that ball. He’s that good, I think he could kick the ball the length of the pitch and over the opposition crossbar. He’s been the building brick. His passing is so accurate he could be a defensive midfielder but he has made some incredible saves too.

Like the good old Sir Alex Ferguson sides, to make possession work you need to make the pitch as wide as possible, and City have done that with Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva.

There are no softies either in this side. They defend with skill and intelligence but Fernandinho is a tough character who can dig in when he needs to and the manner of the win over Tottenham at Wembley showed they had a mental toughness. It’s not easy to come back from three straight defeats but they were sensational that day.

I do think the challenge will be stronger next year and I fancy Liverpool to pose a serious threat but I’m really looking forward to see what Pep does next with this team.