Man City were officially crowned the Premier League champions on Tuesday night when Manchester United dropped points against Leicester City. And with that, Pep Guardiola has now managed to win his third EPL title since taking charge of Manchester City in 2016.
During his five years at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola has won three Premier League trophies, one FA Cup, four EFL Cups and two Community Shields. But at the end of this month, he will also have the chance to win his first Champions League trophy in a decade.
Pep Guardiola last lifted the Champions League with Barcelona back in the 2010-11 season and after a series of quarter-final exits from the tournament, the Spaniard has finally managed to guide Man City to the final this season.
And according to former City midfielder Nigel de Jong, Pep Guardiola will not sleep well until he can fulfil that dream of winning the UCL with Manchester City.
De Jong told Sky Sports: “He’s one of the best coaches we have seen in the history of football, if you look at his stats if you look at his trophy cabinet. But saying that, knowing him as well he wants to win the Champions League because that’s the dark cloud above his head.
“In Man City’s last couple of years that in order for him to be successful he needs to win the Champions League. That was the expectation for bringing him in.
“Of course the Premier League and the domestic trophies are great but the big one was always the Champions League so the expectations were always high.
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“So I know for a fact that he is so eager to win the Champions League, there is one chance he can do it is this year. Reaching the final for the first time in the history of City. Especially under his spell, with this squad, he needs to win that to make themselves invincible.
“To make him become really the best coach in the world when it comes down to winning it with multiple teams and not only with Barcelona which was over a decade ago.
“He’s really eager and he got a big ego as well and he knows he must win the Champions League in order to show everybody else around him but especially for himself, to give himself that credit that he is the greatest manager that lives.”
Like De Jong said, winning the Premier League is obviously a matter of pride for Pep Guardiola but he really needs to take the next step if he wants to rub shoulders with the greatest ever managers.
Man City will face Chelsea in the Champions League final later this month and while City have done remarkably well in Europe this season but Chelsea look a completely different beast under Thomas Tuchel.
Tuchel has already beaten Guardiola’s City twice in the past one month so Pep Guardiola will really need to conjure up something magical if he wishes to get anywhere close to the UCL title.
