Guardiola fires back: “Sorry to my haters, we’ll go down in the history books”
PREMIER LEAGUE
The Manchester City coach recalled his time as a player in Barcelona: “I won four consecutive leagues. The fifth and sixth seasons weren’t the same. I wasn’t hungry enough”.
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After the controversial statements Pep Guardiola made once Manchester City’s comeback win over Tottenham were over, the coach was once again very eloquent in the run-up to the game against Wolverhampton.
The Catalan pointed out that "I won four straight leagues as a player when I was at Barcelona. The fifth and sixth seasons weren't the same. I wasn't hungry enough. Caviar, confidence, I thought about how good I was but then Real Madrid beat me in the fifth and sixth seasons. I understand the players, but I'm here to prevent that from happening. The president knows that, otherwise he wouldn't have renewed. But if I lose the team, I can't continue."
He also added that “when the time comes that I retire from Manchester City, everyone will say how good I was, but that's not what this is about. I'm still here. You could say, ‘hey Pep, we're second, we're not 25 points behind Arsenal’. Yes, we are there and there are 57 points still to play. What I am saying is that this way we will not have a chance to win. There is no time to recover. We have the FA Cup, the Champions League and next season. The club must react, aim for more".
Guardiola believes that "some of the goals we conceded are not acceptable, like the goal against Liverpool or the second against United. We’re not defending as if it were the last play. Did you see the latest actions of Jack Grealish throwing himself onto the pitch to recover the ball? Or Nathan Aké, for example, or the duels won by Manuel Akanji. Every game must be like this. That's why we can win 15, 16 or 17 games in a row. It must always be like this. Sorry for my 'haters' Because we'll be in the Premier League history books for everything we've done, how we've done it, the records we've broken. There's no denying it. We've been very consistent at the highest level. But that's in the past. This is the present and our fans want us to play more regularly like in the second half against Tottenham", he concluded.
