Pep Guardiola won’t kill himself if Man City don’t win Champions League as they don’t have same prestige as Barcelona
PEP GUARDIOLA says he will not kill himself if he fails to win the Champions League again.
The Manchester City boss lifted the biggest European prize twice during his time in charge of Barcelona – with the last one coming in 2011.
Guardiola again denied the suggestion he was brought to the Etihad specifically to win the competition when he arrived three years ago.
And while he would love to make it a hat-trick, he insists it is not the obsession that some people believe it is.
He said: “If I don’t win I’m not going to kill myself, promise. I will try my best for the next period.
My first press conference in the first year here before my first Champions League game it was the same question, people said ‘you are here to win the Champions League’.
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“I said ‘ok – but I spoke with Khaldoon al Mubarak, Ferran Soriano and they didn’t tell me that’.
“They told me I was here to continue the project, to try to carry on what Manuel Pellegrini has done, to try to play good football. win one game and then another and see how far we get.”
Having lifted four Premier League titles among 10 domestic trophies, Guardiola accepts many people see European glory as the next step.
He said: “Yes – it is the next step. Definitely but sometimes it’s not possible, sometimes it takes a few years and sometimes longer.
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“Barcelona is the club in my heart but 1992 was the first time they won it. And Barcelona was born a long, long time ago. They’ve been in it every season since they were born.
“Here they have been in the competition for a short time. Of course we are going to try but I’m not going to live the next 10 months, thinking ‘if I don’t win the CL it will be a disaster in my life’
“My life is quite good.”