For all the talk of fabulous tactics and that fiery desire to win, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola believes it’s an ability to “smell” what’s going on with his teams that is his greatest asset as a football manager.
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During news conferences, he routinely holds his fingers up to his nose to demonstrate that it’s not something that can be measured or calculated, but rather something in the air. A feeling or a thought. A sixth sense, even.
What, then, are Manchester City cooking up this season and is all well in the kitchen? Guardiola will hold a news conference on Friday with City on a run of three defeats from their last six games and facing accusations from the Premier League that the club have committed more than 100 breaches of financial rules which could, in theory, result in expulsion from the competition. Right now, not everything at the Etihad Stadium is smelling of roses.
In the wake of the Premier League‘s stunning statement on Monday, players and staff were gathered together and assured that it was “business as usual” with the focus remaining on overhauling Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table and winning both the FA Cup and the Champions League.
But this hasn’t been a usual City season. The point at which they normally put their foot down and blitz the title race with a string of wins has come and gone. Key players have suffered dips in form and even Guardiola has, at times, appeared to be fraying at the edges.
The upshot is that despite everything going on in the boardroom and problems to solve on the pitch, the campaign could still end with City lifting the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League to replicate a feat only ever achieved once before in England, by Manchester United in 1999. It’s just that, at the moment, it seems a long way off.
City have declared their intention to defend themselves vigorously against the Premier League — not least with their appointment of £5,000-an-hour lawyer Lord Pannick KC — but recently there has been little of the same energy on the pitch. The performance in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur had none of the zip and fizz of a typical Guardiola team and afterwards the City manager was left to complain about the time it took to travel from Manchester to London. It was delivered in a way that suggested even he knew it wasn’t a valid excuse.
