Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have endured a wretched season with the latest blow for the fallen champions seeing the Spaniard agree with his bitter rival Jose Mourinho
Pep Guardiola reckons securing a return to the Champions League next season will be one of his most impressive milestones as Manchester City boss.
Guardiola has endured a miserable campaign after seeing a host of leading stars struck down with injuries. These include Ballon d’Orr winner Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones and now Erling Haaland.
To make matters worse, Guardiola has had to contend with the backdrop of his club’s on-going battle with the Premier League over allegations of breaking spending rules.
And due to the problems he has faced this time round, Guardiola believes qualifying for club football’s biggest competition again would be extra satisfying.
The former Barcelona manager claims people have been proved wrong for taking for granted the fact City will qualify for the Champions League every season.
His rival Jose Mourinho claimed finishing second in the Premier League to City in 2018, when he was Manchester United boss, was one of his greatest managerial achievements due to his rivals’ greater spending power.
And Guardiola is convinced a top four finish this season would represent a significant achievements. The Spaniard, whose side host Leicester City on Wednesday night, said: “Getting to the Champions League next season will be an incredible success.
“Just for the fact of being there, for the problems that we’ve had. I understand when Jose said this quote. For the club, for next season, we want to play in the Champions League.
“I said this before, a thousand million times, that people take for granted that City are going to be in the Champions League every season.
“I know how difficult it is. Otherwise, all the important teams would be in the Champions League every season. But it didn’t happen like that.
“We’re the only one in the last, I don’t know how many years, who have been there. This kind of thing I give a lot of importance to, because it’s the consistency I’ve always been looking for as a manager.”
City are fifth in the table and locked in a desperate battle with numerous sides around them for one of the coveted Champions League spots. And Guardiola knows being without some influential players for so long has been a huge challenge to overcome.
He said: “It wasn’t possible to do it in the Premier League this season, and this is the worst Champions League campaign we’ve done since I’ve been here.
“But look at the FA Cup – seven semi-finals in a row. The people say ‘Yeah, but you play teams in the Championship and in League One’.
“Maybe we won’t win the FA Cup, but we’ve been there. In the Premier League, we’ve not been there, in the Champions League, we’ve not been there.
“You can’t compete in all of the competitions when you don’t have the players. And this season it happened. We had to play a lot without them.
“We have nine games, nine finals, and we’re going to try next season to be in the Champions League.”