Pep’s over the moon with life at City helm

PEP Guardiola has praised his City bosses for supporting him through difficult moments during his time in charge at the Etihad.

Next season will be Guardiola’s fifth at the club, the most he has ever spent coaching a club, and he expects to sit down before the start of it to discuss his future beyond 2021.

City’s appeal win at the Court of Arbitration for Sport frees them up to play in the Champions League again, making them a more attractive proposition than they would have been if they had been banned.

During the five months between City’s initial punishment and eventual exoneration, Guardiola expressed his confidence on a number of occasions that the verdict would be overturned because of his faith in what his bosses had told him.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager also remembers the confidence expressed in him at the end of a chastening first year in English football where many critics took delight in his failure to win a trophy for the first time in his coaching career.

Despite repeated speculation, Guardiola is not planning on going anywhere any time soon.

“I am so happy here. I have people support me in bad moments. That doesn’t happen much in our world,” he told beIN Sports. “You [have] success you are good, you [don’t have] success you are not good and you will be fired.

“Here it happens too, but at the same time I am supported by people, I know. They support me and the club is fantastic.”