City mislaid the Euro key

After Real Madrid had dumped Pep Guardiola and Manchester City out of the Uefa Champions League on Wednesday night, a regurgitated quote about Ivory Coast legend Yaya Toure started doing the rounds.

The quote came in 2018, delivered by Toure’s agent, Dimitry Selkuk, who was clearly upset about Guardiola’s treatment of Toure at Manchester City.

“When you treat Yaya, club legend, as he did, he turned the whole of Africa against him and the club. I’m sure African shamans won’t let him win it (the Champions League). It’ll be like an African curse on him. Life will show whether I am right or not,” said Seluk.

Travelling through Africa to establish whether there is a Champions League curse on Pep Guardiola frankly sounds like subject matter for a fascinating podcast.

Even with “African shamans” out of the picture (and until 2018 they presumably were in this regard), it is certainly a mystery as to how Guardiola, in six seasons with City, with such rich resources at his disposal, has failed to lift the biggest club trophy in Europe.

To be fair the Guardiola Champions League malaise started at Bayern Munich. He had won two Champions League titles with Barcelona, before moving to the German giants in 2013, but never got past the semifinals in three seasons at Bayern, though he did manage three Bundesliga titles, and two league and cup doubles.

There has been a similar pattern at City, with dominance domestically not matched by European glory. If City wrap up the English Premier League title this season, they will have won four out of six EPL titles since Guardiola took over, as well as one FA Cup and three league cups. But the Champions League has remained elusive.

The closest City came was last season, but they were outplayed in the final by Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea.

On Tuesday, City fell victim to Real Madrid’s late show at the Bernabeu. Real have looked down and out three times but pulled it out of the fire.

How? Perhaps because winning the Champions League is in Real Madrid’s DNA. As of yet, City haven’t found that key.