‘Charges do not take away Pep’s success’
GAEL Clichy has no doubt that City’s success under Pep Guardiola cannot be brushed aside by allegations of financial cheating.
The Blues have dominated the last decade of English football and their trophy cabinet has rapidly filled under Guardiola, winning five of the last six Premier League titles as well as two FA Cups and four Carabao Cups.
However, the club have been accused by the Premier League of misrepresenting their finances in order to artificially boost their revenues over nine seasons – a period that overlaps with Guardiola’s arrival at the Etihad as well as including title wins for Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini.
The club insist upon their innocence but the serious allegations have raised doubts over the legitimacy of City’s success.
That has been strongly refuted by Guardiola and Clichy, who spent six years with the Blues after leaving Arsenal, does not believe that the work of the players and coach can be diminished.
“Even if you have money, telling your players to run 13 kilometres is not easy, telling your players to go and win a cup again, it’s not easy,” Clichy told Super 6.
“As humans, once we have achieved something, it’s very difficult to get motivated again. We are talking about a team that has won four of the last five Premier League titles and could be on their way to winning another one.
“None of the cases against City really matter. I can assure you telling your player to play out from the back, telling your centre-back to play as a number six or taking a 16-year-old boy and turning him into the best English talent we’ve had in 20 years has nothing to do with that.”