NOW PEP WANTS TO MAKE IT 5-0!
City boss chasing trophy full house to leave Poch potless
AS Pep Guardiola turned his mind to the closing stages of the Champions League and a trilogy of games against Tottenham, he wondered aloud about the status of the FA Community Shield.
Its equivalent in Germany or Spain would count as a major piece of silverware without debate but in England, Guardiola has discovered, it is dismissed as a virtually meaningless friendly.
‘Nobody counts it, I don’t know why,’ he said, as he joked about swerving the Shield in August if Manchester City are involved as champions or FA Cup winners — or both. ‘Why? Because it doesn’t count! It will be longer holidays in summer and we will be fresh for the League and Champions League.’
The significance, at this stage of the season, is that City are in pursuit of an unprecedented clean sweep of all prizes available. They won the Shield in August and the Carabao Cup in February. As Guardiola finds himself fielding questions about a Quadruple, he thinks he is chasing a Quintuple.
‘Always we had the feeling we won two titles so far, we have three to play,’ added the City boss. ‘So that is what we believe.’
At Spurs, where they have won one trophy this century — a League Cup in 2008 — they must long for these types of conversation.
Guardiola, if he is to count various Super Cups in his collection, can boast 25 trophies as a manager, while Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino is still searching for his first.
Pochettino might point out that he has been in charge at Espanyol and Southampton rather than perennial winners such as Barcelona and Bayern Munich, but his final chance of this season comes in the biggest competition of all.
Guardiola has not won the Champions League since 2011 when Barca beat Manchester United in the final at Wembley.
City have never been European champions and in this era, when they seem determined to sweep all before them, it feels like an important statement to make.
Last season they were foiled by Liverpool, losing 3-0 in the semifinal first leg amid the fervour of Anfield after an attack on their team bus in the streets around the stadium.
Again on a big European night, they today face domestic rivals who know them well. Tottenham fans are brimming with emotion at their return to White Hart Lane and the prospect of a first Champions League fixture at the new, 62,000- capacity stadium which they opened with a win against Crystal Palace last Wednesday.
‘In the Champions League, in all the away games, the fans support the team more than ever, ’ said Guardiola.
‘It’s the second time Spurs play at home, so we know exactly what we are going to face. It’s in our hands how we handle it. If we want to make a step forward as a club, as a team, we have to know how to handle these situations. If we don’t, it’s because we are still not prepared to go through.’
Pochettino has drawn on the psychology of this return to a spiritual home where they barely dropped a point in 2016-17.
The last time Manchester City visited White Hart Lane was Guardiola’s first defeat in the job, after his season started with 10 straight wins.
‘We were leading the Premier League and when we lost I said
now I understand how difficult it will be to qualify for the Champions League,’ said Guardiola. ‘It was our first season together. We are a better team than in that time. But I am not a guy who thinks too much about the memories.’
Tottenham consider themselves a stronger team, too. They have been inactive in the transfer market but young players have matured.
No one would dare to suggest they are a one-man team any longer. Not even Guardiola, who once infuriated Pochettino by calling Spurs ‘ the Harry Kane team’.
‘No, I can’t say that, Mauricio will be angry with me,’ said the City boss.
‘My colleague misunderstood me at the time. It was to express an opinion about Tottenham in that period when Harry Kane scored, I don’t know, eight goals in three or four games. That’s why I said it.
‘I know Tottenham Hotspur is not just Harry Kane. The club is strong. It’s an incredible team but, of course, Harry Kane — who can deny him? He’s No 9 for the England team, an incredible striker and everybody knows it.
‘He has everything. Right, left movements, keep the ball, set the ball intelligently, when he drops deep, in the box he is clinical.’
Pochettino’s team emerged from a tough group after taking only one point from three games and overcame Dortmund with a 3-0 win in the first leg of the last round, without Kane.
Finally, they are where they wanted to be — in their new £1billion home in the Champions League. They may have preferred different opponents but this is their moment just as much as it is City’s.
This is Pochettino’s moment as much as it is Guardiola’s. Even if he trails far behind in the silverware charts.