The Man City ‘project’ has become a real test of Guardiola’s credentials

Having sacrificed the present for the future, Manchester City are in danger of messing that up, too. All for the love of Pep.

The unveiling of Guardiola mid-season was, in a sense, an attempt to control the media space as the speculation about his whereabouts next term became the worst kept secret in football.

While it was successful in that regard it compromised, not to mention emasculated, Manuel Pellegrini, destabilising City and uncoupling them from their title challenge.

Worse than that after the thumping at Southampton and the meek Champions League exit in Madrid, City face the visit of Arsenal in a dogfight for fourth place. Though Guardiola’s failure to land Europe’s premier trophy in three years at Bayern Munich demonstrates how difficult a challenge it is, it would be some irony were he denied a crack at it with City in his first season as a result of the mechanism that brought him to the Etihad.

Guardiola is perhaps helped by the capricious character of the neighbours in pursuit. Manchester United must win at Carrow Road and at Upton Park next Tuesday to squeeze City’s pips, and if they don’t then West Ham might turn mathematical contention into something more tangible.The bottom line is should City fail to beat Arsenal then both United’s can reel them in.

There is a heap of frantic discourse in the post Madrid apocalypse about the requirement to take City to European nirvana and whom in the present squad might survive the Guardiola cull. With unlimited dough to throw at the project, and names as gilded as Leo Messi banded about, the usual suspects are to the fore.

The key quality Guardiola must introduce is far harder to measure or buy. It is present in the Leicester dressing room and in the regime of Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid, two teams built around team spirit as much as technique.Yaya Toure looks cooked, a fragile Vincent Kompany’s days are numbered, Jesus Navas might have disappeared down his last cul-de-sac and even the mercurial David Silva is vulnerable after an indifferent season peppered with injuries. Sergio Aguero and Kevin de Bruyne obviously stay, despite giving performances as poor as they have all season at the Bernabeu.

What City so obviously lacked in Madrid was belief, the kind of self-confidence that sees them for the most part swagger about the Premier League. Until City believe themselves worthy of the highest echelons of the Champions League, then they will be beaten before a ball is kicked, which was pretty much the story of Wednesday night.

The moment Kompany departed the scene in the ninth minute, City lost all coherence after a positive start. Fate had brought their leader low and none was able to pick up the challenge.
The City ‘project’ has thus become a real test of Guardiola’s coaching credentials.

 He arrived at the Allianz Arena as the guru of the hour after fashioning one of the great club sides in the history of the game at Barcelona. He did it with arguably the greatest player of all time surrounded by a group good enough to dominate a Spanish team that ruled the world.

As time goes by the question inevitably begged is how much of Barcelona’s success was down to the unique flowering of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta and how much to him.

Guardiola transferred to a team in Munich that were unchallenged in Germany and champions of Europe. While domestic hegemony has been maintained he could not put the greatest prize in the game on the sideboard.The margins were tight, of course. Bayern were the more expansive team in the semi-final but were overcome by an opponent drilled brilliantly by a coach whose standing has, if anything, risen above his. The one thing Simeone’s teams do not lack is the quality City need most, guerilla hauteur. Like beetles, there is no crushing Atletico.

If we are to put a positive spin on City’s season, they are still in control of their own destiny in the Premier League. A win against Arsenal and at Swansea on the last weekend renders United and West Ham impotent. And they did reach the last four in the Champions League, exiting at the same stage as Bayern Munich, which is not bad company to keep.

At least that is the story Guardiola hopes to tell when he introduces the next tranche of brand leaders at pre-season training. “Good morning everybody, you all know Leo I take it…”