Pep is hungry and doesn’t intend to starve
The rest of the Premier League can forget about Pep Guardiola easing up.
The Manchester City manager’s hatred of losing will put paid to that.
Guardiola has already laid the two trophies won last season to one side. Now it’s all about the challenges he faces this year.
There will be no basking in the merits of 100 points and 106 goals.
That has been consigned to history. Now the City manager is focusing on how he can stay one step ahead of Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp and the rest.
And for that, Guardiola needs little motivation.
“I am ready,” he says, ahead of this afternoon’s Community Shield against FA Cup winners Chelsea at Wembley.
“From my point of view, the players don’t have to be worried. I am ready to fight again.
“The fear of losing games makes me starving and hungry again. I don’t like that feeling.
“It is not good for any manager around the world. We all try to avoid that feeling when you lose a game.
“You feel guilty, you feel bad, your private life is not good and your relationship with the players is not good.
“To avoid all that, the simple fear of losing a game makes you hungry. You just want to win. That is why we are here.”
The Community Shield offers Guardiola an early chance to put another bit of silverware in the cabinet before the main action starts for him a week today.
City begin the defence of the Premier League title with a trip to Arsenal, and their manager is putting the attempt to retain it as the season’s No. 1 priority.
No side has retained the title since United won three in a row from 2007 to 2009, and Guardiola maintains that being the best team over 38 games remains the gold standard.
“The Premier League is the main
target,” he states. “Now the target is the Community Shield, but the Premier League shows how you are as a team.
“It is more unpredictable in the Champions League. One bad moment, bad decisions, a bad half can break all the work of the whole season.
“Of course, we want to win the Champions League, but all the clubs who play in it want to win it.
“I think we need more time to be a real, real contender.
“For ourselves, for the system, for the referees, for everything to be able to fight to be Champions League.
“That is the dream of the club. Last season we wanted to win it and the season before.
“But Barcelona – for me the best football club in the world – did not win it until 1992, and before that they had lost two finals.
“So it’s not an easy competition to win. The most important thing is being there every season and City have been in it for the last seven years.
“But if you ask me what is most important, it’s the Premier League – every day.
“It’s being consistent and winning those three points every week, against the likes of the promoted teams when people say, ‘Oh, City are going to win’. “That is the main target.”
The rest of the Premier League has been warned.