Guardiola urges Man City hierarchy to give him time to fix faltering team as Nadal visits
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has urged the Abu Dhabi hierarchy to give him the chance to revive his faltering team amid its staggering run of poor results, saying Friday he will not “run away” from the challenge.
City lost five games in a row before squandering a three-goal lead from the 75th minute to draw 3-3 with Feyenoord in the Champions League on Tuesday.
The longest winless streak in Guardiola’s coaching career could be extended on Sunday when City plays away to Liverpool, which is in first place in the Premier League and the Champions League.
“It’s not normal in the big clubs to do the results we have done, but what we have to do is accept it,” Guardiola said. “For sure I want to stay here, I want to do it, but the moment I feel I’m not positive for the club, another one will come. But I want the opportunity to try. I don’t want to run away. I want to be there. I want to rebuild the team.
“I ask for that challenge. I ask for this opportunity to do it. Because I feel it. I know what I want to do. I know what we need. I know what we have to do.”
Guardiola, who has won the Premier League six times in his eight full seasons with City as well as the club’s first Champions League title, said he is in regular communication with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.
“He knows we are going to find a solution,” Guardiola said. “In the circumstances that it doesn’t happen, the club will take the solution, the decision, it has to take."
The Spanish coach said he deserved to be given time to turn things around.
“I have it all on my shoulders. I want it,” he said. “Here at the football club you have to win — if you don’t win, you’ll be in trouble. I know that.
“People said, ‘Oh, why is Pep not in trouble? Why is he not sacked?’ What we have done the last eight years is why we have this margin.”
Guardiola played down talk of a “crisis” at City when asked by a reporter, but was unsure when the team would start winning again. After Liverpool, City plays seventh-place Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.
“We will be back — I know that,” Guardiola said. “I don’t know when, that is the truth.
“We have to accept,” he added, “that it is completely normal — maybe the exception was in the past, not what happened now. How we stand up again, this is the big success in life. It’s how many times you stand up, again and again and again, whatever happens. They are the greatest (people).”
Rafael Nadal, the 22-time Grand Slam champion who retired from tennis this month, visited City’s training ground on Thursday. He is a Real Madrid fan and was in northwest England to watch the Spanish team play Liverpool in the Champions League on Tuesday.
“It was a pleasure to see him. One of the most incredible athletes of all time,” Guardiola said. “We spoke sport and everything and how it’s difficult to maintain for many years — and how he, (Roger) Federer and (Novak) Djokovic have done for many, many years.”
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta described City's poor spell as a “bump” and wasn't prepared to write off the champions in the title race.
“For them, it’s very strange because in nine years they’ve never had it,” said Arteta, who was once an assistant to Guardiola at City. “But that tells you the level and the environment we are in — everything has to be almost perfect, you know. The performance has to be perfect, the availability of your squad has to be perfect, things have to go your way.”
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