While Guardiola won six medals in 2009 while managing Barcelona, the Catalan team won La Liga, Copa del Rey, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup, Champions League, and Club World Cup crowns. No club in English football history has had such a good year.
The fact that Manchester City won its fifth trophy in an incredible year makes Pep Guardiola think that more people than ever want the team to fail. City, who have already won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, and European Super Cup in 2023, will play Everton on Wednesday when they return to English domestic action. Prior to that, City won the Club World Cup, hammering Brazilian team Fluminense 4-0 in Saudi Arabia. Not a single English football team has ever had a year as successful as this one, but Guardiola’s Barcelona team did win six medals in 2009—the Spanish Super Cup, Copa del Rey, La Liga, Champions League, and Club World Cup.
Prior to City’s journey to Goodison Park, manager Guardiola stated, “It is a business, you get credit when you win.” “You don’t win you are nothing, zero, what you have done in the past.”
“Even if you succeed, they would prefer you to fail,” the Spaniard continued. more than before. That’s how I felt in Barcelona when we won the sextuple.
It’s typical. They do not desire our victory. What we have achieved—the titles—over the past 14–15 years is astounding.
“People comment on their skill level and call it brilliant. But just because we win, they give us credit. They don’t need to search any farther than that.”
The Manchester club’s first Club World Cup was won by City over Fluminense, after a fruitful five days in Saudi Arabia that manager Guardiola described as having “created incredible team building and team spirit”.
It was all quite different from their recent performance in the Premier League, where they had only won once in the last six games, dropping City to fifth place in the standings and six points behind leaders Arsenal.
“In the moment you don’t win you are going to get doubts, absolutely everything,” Guardiola stated. But the wonderful thing is that. That’s alright. We’ll see what happens when doubt reappears.
“As I already mentioned, we performed admirably against Crystal Palace, Liverpool, and Tottenham but lost.
It’s clear that they don’t give a damn about how we play. Even though we played the finest levels that are comparable to these (previous) eight years, we still lose. A ‘disaster and crisis’ has occurred.
Of course, we had our share of poor performances—Aston Villa was superior. What, though, is the issue?
“We have to accept it and go on since they can play better. In actuality, they are just waiting for us to fail—even if we are content right now.”
Guardiola, who celebrated Christmas in Barcelona with his family, maintained that Everton was the center of his attention right now.
“Nothing else exists than Goodison Park,” he stated. “The best athletes quickly forget their achievements. They rejoice in it, but there’s another competition coming up.”
After suffering an ankle injury against Fluminense, Rodri is expected to play for City, but Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, and Jeremy Doku’s availability is in question.
