THE THIRD DECREE

There’s nothing that annoys me more than people calling or messaging to congratulate me on third place. My answer is pretty standard to everyone: There’s nothing to congratulate, only congratulate me if we win the league

MANCHESTER CITY chief Khaldoon Al Mubarak admits their first Premier League campaign under Pep Guardiola was “nothing to celebrate”. Although he insists City are heading in the right direction under the Blues boss (below), Al Mubarak was irked by messages congratulating him on City’s third-place finish. And owner Sheikh Mansour’s right-hand man concedes City fell well short of expectations because they could not even muster a title challenge. “There’s nothing that annoys me more than people either calling me or sending me a message congratulating me on third place,” he said. “My answer was pretty standard to everyone, ‘Don’t congratulate me on getting third, there’s nothing to congratulate, only congratulate me if we win the league’. So this is not the ambition, not at all. There’s nothing to celebrate. “It’s something, which is important, it’s critical and I know it requires a lot of hard work, particularly in this league, to be in the top four, but our ambition is to win the league. “And if not winning it, to go as close as physically possible to winning the league. I think this year, in that area, we didn’t do that.” City also failed in the cups and in the Champions League, going backwards from Manuel Pellegrini’s achievements in his final campaign. Al Mubarak admits finishing without a trophy is disappointing, but insists Guardiola is laying the foundations for success by instilling his philosophy at the club. “In normal circumstances, ending the season without a trophy would be very disappointing, but it’s not, it really isn’t,” he said in his traditional end-of-season interview with City TV. “While I would say not winning the league or being within close range of winning the title is a disappointment, not winning either the FA Cup or the League Cup is also a disappointment. “We are a team now that expects to win every year at least one trophy. And then to go further every year in the Champions League. “So from that perspective the season has been a disappointment, but if you look at it from a different lens, we’re truly going in a direction that’s positive. “I’m very excited about how we are developing as a team, how Pep has taken the squad and really started a process of going through that natural cycle of development. “We’ve gone through several cycles over the last nine years and we’re in the middle of one now – you can see where we’re going. I have high confidence we are going in the right direction. “You’ve seen many glimpses of us playing a type of football that’s very exciting, very entertaining and one I think the fans will grow to love and the results will come.” City began planning for the summer months ago and Brazil keeper Ederson is set to follow Bernardo Silva in a £35million deal, taking their spending to £78m already. The Ederson deal has been given the thumbs-up by Sheikh Mansour and Al Mubarak says he approves all transfers. “It’s a continual conversation between me and his Highness,” he said. “Sheikh Mansour asks for regular updates on how our thinking is evolving. He’s in the process, he knows where we are going, so there are no surprises. “I keep him up-to-date on Pep’s thinking and how the group is supporting him.”