The Champions League championship trophy and Manchester City. Things that appear to go together but are incompatible with one another.
When City hired Pep Guardiola in 2015, it was meant to mark the start of a new era that would place them among the elite on the Continent. The game was about to change on the blue side of Manchester thanks to one of the greatest managers to ever live and one of the select few to have won Europe’s top trophy twice.
The Spaniard has received strong support from City’s Abu Dhabi owners in the transfer market, enabling him to shell out on a number of players for eye-popping sums. Yes, he has helped the club succeed. two consecutive Premier League championships, three League Cups, and an FA Cup.
In reality, Guardiola has performed even worse than the man he was hired to replace. Even Manuel Pellegrini made it to the semi-finals in 2015-16. Three exits in the previous eight games indicate a severe problem, which Guardiola looks unable to remedy by throwing money at it.
After VAR determined that Fernando Llorente had not touched the ball with his arm in the build-up to the crucial goal in the second leg, a spectacular loss to Tottenham in the 2018-19 season could be regarded extremely unlucky.
Winning the world’s finest league (Premier League) and then losing to the same clubs they defeated in the Premier League. Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, and Chelsea all know how to play in finals, what to do and what not to do, and they appear to be prepared for these stages, whereas Manchester City does not.
Look at how Villareal performs on European evenings; they upset big names, and their goals are evident. They can beat teams like Bayern Munich and Juventus on their day.