Pep has lifted City up to ‘the same levels as Barca...’
PEP Guardiola’s right-hand man claims City have reached the levels of Barcelona and Bayern Munich under the Catalan.
Manel Estiarte - one of Guardiola’s closest confidants - has defended the Blues manager’s first season at the Etihad.
Despite Guardiola enduring his first trophyless campaign as a boss, Estiarte claims his critics are jealous or wearing blindfolds.
In an interview with Catalan newspaper Ara, he said: “They can say what they want.
“Maybe they say that out of jealousy because they don’t understand, or because they have a blindfold over their eyes.
“There have been very good moments in games that you can compare to the teams that we all think about - the best Barca and the best Bayern.
“There would be a list of 10 or 15 games that we have played at a very high level, independently of whether the result has gone for us or not. I prefer that.
“I was expecting it to be a little harder to play at that level, which at times has been very high.”
City finished third in the Premier League - 15 points behind champions Chelsea.
Guardiola also failed to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League for first time in his career as City were knocked out at the round of 16 by Monaco.
Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has promised him funds to overhaul his squad, with City planning to bring in six players at a cost of around £300m.
Bernardo Silva has completed a £43m move from Monaco and Ederson will become the most expensive goalkeeper in Britain once his £34.7m transfer from Benfica is cleared by the authorities. Alexis Sanchez, Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy are also targets, while Virgil van Dijk is among the centre-backs under consideration by Guardiola, along with Leonardo Bonucci.
Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe remains on City’s radar, despite the French champions’ valuation, which is in excess of £100m.
Even without that investment, Estiarte believes Guardiola’s vision is clear.
“We have created double the chances to score than the second-placed team and we are the ones who have missed most,” he added.
“It’s the same as always - there will be people pro-Guardiola and people anti-Guardiola and they will interpret it as they like.
“But I talk about football. We have played attacking football, with possession, creating chances and controlling the game, which is very Pep and very Johan (Cruyff).”