GLENN HODDLE ON PEP
NO ONE is under more pressure than Pep Guardiola this season. Not Jose Mourinho, he has already banked two trophies. Minor ones but trophies nonetheless. Not David Wagner, he is a hero forever in Huddersfield whatever lies ahead this season. Not even Frank de Boer and Marco Silva, they will be given some consideration for the resources at their disposal when evaluating their performances.
But Guardiola has nowhere to hide now. He delivered a season which, though the team finished third, was worse than Manuel Pellegrini in 2015-16, when at least they won the League Cup and reached the Champions League semi-final. When you consider that Pellegrini’s season was described as the ‘ bare minimum’ by City’s chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, then you would have to think that the board must feel that Guardiola failed in his first season.
Now the excuses run out. City have spent £200million this summer and £190m last season when Guardiola arrived. Everything ought to be in place.
However, it is almost as if City have wasted Guardiola’s first season. It is not like they didn’t know he was coming, and yet they finished last season with an ageing squad, with almost an entire team running out of contract and with a quartet of full-backs running out of steam, who all had to be replaced at once. If there is a strategy, it is hard to fathom.
Director of football Txiki Begiristain must be under the same kind of pressure as Guardiola. The pair played and t hen worked together at Barcelona in these same roles. Begiristain must have known exactly what Guardiola wanted and needed. He must have already been feeling some scrutiny after signing Eliaquim Mangala for £42m and Wilfried Bony for £28m even prior to Guardiola’s arrival.
Add in the mess Guardiola and Begiristain made of the goalkeeping situation, disposing of Joe Hart, bringing in Claudio Bravo and now signing Ederson — this time they have to have got it right — you begin to understand just why City are a club in a degree of flux at the moment. It is all very well Guardiola saying they need time to match the best but Roberto Mancini and Pellegrini both managed to win the Premier League.
With the additions they have made in Ederson, Benjamin Mendy, Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva and Danilo, they will, of course, challenge for the title. And you have to say that, going forward, City fans will be in for a treat. Some of their football last season was scintillating.
With Bernardo added to Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus, Leroy Sane, Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and David Silva, there will be times when they produce some extraordinary football.
But they still have question marks in defence. If Vincent Kompany can stay fit, that may well be enough to answer them. But that is by no means guaranteed. John Stones still has it all to prove and Ederson must pass the test that Bravo failed last season. And Guardiola surely has to adjust to the Premier League this season. Now he has the full-backs he wants, with the speed and energy he needs, maybe it will be easier.
The refereeing may well not be to his taste, in that it does not allow quite so much freeflowing, passing football. But even i f the owners, managers and players are foreign, the refs remain English, as do the roots and culture of the game. Guardiola has to start adapting to England, because England is not going to adapt to him.
Meanwhile, as for Tottenham, I will hold my fire for the end of the transfer window. It may be that they can pull off some signings in the next month which may surprise us and make last season’s runners up feel they can push on to challenge for the league.
But it has been a disappointing summer. Losing Walker was a real crossroads moment. I would have loved for them to think big and try to get Isco or even Kylian Mbappe. Maybe the latter will end up at Real Madrid anyway.
But Spurs have an opportunity with a young s quad, a great manager and a new stadium, to be among the best in Europe. They have to seize it. And you can’t do that on the cheap.