Delicious irony of Pep being crowned as Jose halo slips

PEP won’t be able to hack it in England. The league is too demanding, too strong from top to bottom. Too hectic for a purist with such aesthetic tendencies. Even on the other side of the planet, news of Manchester City’s march towards the Premier League title is causing a minor stir. And not just because England’s top flight has become the world’s most-watched domestic competition. Among those who have always enjoyed watching Pep Guardiola’s teams play, there is a special delight at the prospect of City clinching the league title by beating Manchester United this weekend. Oh, the possibility that he will enjoy his crowning moment — the biggest two-fingered salute to all those Little Englander critics — against Jose Mourinho is just too delicious. Because the Special Once, never the most loveable of characters, has gradually come to represent everything that is mean, miserly and cynical about the game. Please, please make him suffer as the defining victim of Pep’s triumph. Guardiola (left) is no doe-eyed dreamer, of course. He took up his job at the Etihad because the club’s owners are richer than Croesus. So, yes, in a very real sense, he has bought the title. No one disputes the theory that City’s spending power has been key to their all-conquering strength in depth. But just imagine, as Mourinho no doubt has, what the former Chelsea and Real Madrid boss would have done with those billions. United would still have played football to make the eyes bleed, they would still have bored their way to victory. Whatever very real concerns you may harbour about foreign wealth and its effect on the British game, no one would argue that City are not dazzling. Mesmerising. And admired by all but the most coldhearted, envious and bitter of rivals.