No future at City for Pep if no trophy

LONDON: Pep Guardiola indicated on Friday his tenure as Manchester City manager will not be a long one if his first season in charge ends without a trophy.

Sheikh Mansour, the club’s owner, gave Guardiola his full support when they met in Abu Dhabi last month, and there is no suggestion he faces the sack if he fails to win a trophy this season.

However, Guardiola is aware of the demands for success at City, whose chief executive, Ferran Soriano, set a target of five trophies in five years for Manuel Pellegrini, the previous manager.

Pellegrini managed to win three in three seasons, securing the Premier League title once and the League Cup twice, but it was not enough to save his job.

Guardiola’s hopes of winning the Premier League this season are dim as they are 10 points behind leaders Chelsea with 11 games to play.

The 46-year-old Spaniard’s best hope of a trophy will come elsewhere; with his team securing an FA Cup semi-final place after beating Middlesbrough 2-0 yesterday, four days before the second leg Last 16 Champions League visit to Monaco.

City lead 5-3 after the first-leg. “If I have no silverware, I will not be here for a long time,” Guardiola admitted.

“I know how it was after six, seven months here together with my periods at Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

“We will be judged on the results, and people analyse the games and what we have done during the season. With no silverware, it will not be a good season. I knew that in August,” added Guardiola, who guided Barcelona to two Champions League trophies in 2009 and 2011.