BOURNEM’TH v MAN CITY PEP’S HARSH LESSON IN LOSING!

Brutal Bruce: Prem ...City boss has never been beaten this much in his lif e

PEP GUARDIOLA will suffer his worst-ever season as a manager if Manchester City lose just one more game.

And as the Spaniard heads to Bournemouth tomorrow, seasoned boss Steve Bruce has claimed the Premier League is such a brutal environment for managers that even Guardiola’s super- coach reputation has taken a battering.

Guardiola is hoping for a win at the Vitality Stadium to stay on the fringe of the title race.

But another league defeat before May will make his first campaign in English football his poorest since becoming a coach.

City have already lost five times i n the Prem under Guardiola, suffering defeats against Spurs, Chelsea, Leicester, Liverpool and Everton in the first five months of the season.

And that equals his worst s e a s ons at Barcelona (2008-09) and Bayern Munich ( 201415), where he only ever lost a maximum of five League games in one campaign. Bruce – now boss of Aston Villa – would have been pitting his tactical nous against Guardiola had he remained at Hull instead of quitting on the eve of the season after repeated fall- outs with owner’s son Ehab Allam, who runs the club.

But while he misses operating in the big time, Bruce (right) doesn’t envy the suffocating pressure being applied to Guardiola and every other boss in the Premier League.

Scrutiny

“The scrutiny Guardiola has been under at City just shows you how hard it is in the Premier League for managers,” said Bruce.

“It’s a brutal environment. It’s not like this abroad and that’s why sometimes you have to be careful about buying players from abroad.

“You have to be careful about who you bring in because it’s so different for the top managers. Look at Pep, he’s never been beaten so much in his life.

“What’s he lost so far – seven games in all competitions? He’s probably not been beaten seven times in five years at his previous clubs!

“And yet when his methods and philosophy were in play at Barcelona everyone was blown away.

“Barcelona under Guardiola were truly a magnificent team and nd Bayern Munich ruled German football the same way when he was in the Bundesliga.

“But English football has always been a bit different to those leagues and that’s the big test for managers like him coming from clubs where all they have ever known is success. The signs are there, though, that he is finding his feet a little and I am sure he will get it right.”

With City boosted by the arrival of Brazilian superkid Gabriel Jesus, Blues fans hope Bruce is right. But it’s clear Guardiola has found the Premier League a tough arena in which to implement his style.

The difficulties of managing in English football’s top flight means Guardiola also has the unenviable record of making the least impressive management start at any of his three clubs. His most spectacular impact in his first 24 games in charge came at Bayern Munich in the 2013-14 season when he won 22 and drew two on the way to a Bundesliga and German Cup double.

Next best was at Barcelona where he lost just two games in his opening 24.

But perhaps the most illuminating statistic which highlights the gap between German and English football is his overall Bundesliga record of just nine defeats in THREE seasons.

Little wonder then that the Blues boss has been prickly when quizzed at times this season about City’s erratic progress.