Pep warms up for City challenges

SUNDAY MIRROR

PEP GUARDIOLA has been making secret visits to Manchester City’s Etihad campus in a bid to ensure he hits the ground running when he becomes the new Blues boss.

Guardiola first spent a few days at the club’s stunning £200million training ground late last month, less than a week after marking his departure from Bayern Munich with a penalty shoot-out win over Borussia Dortmund in the German Cup final.

And he was back in Manchester for a flying visit on Friday as he gets himself acquainted with the facilities that will be placed at his disposal at the state-of-the-art City football academy.

Sunday Mirror Sport can also reveal that, after first meeting with academy coaches and club staff – including longserving assistant manager Brian Kidd – 10 days ago, the workaholic Catalan was then whisked 5,000 miles to Abu Dhabi for high-level talks with City owner Sheikh Mansour and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.

Guardiola is aware that he has taken on a different challenge to the ones he conquered in Spain and Germany over the last eight years.

So, he has been keen to begin shaping club policy and business in the transfer market as he looks to emulate the success he enjoyed at Barcelona and Bayern.

Guardiola got his first wish when Ilkay Gundogan arrived in a £20m deal from Borussia Dortmund in midweek.