Pep Guardiola has fallen well short of expectations and only his reputation is saving him, says Harry Redknapp

Pep has fallen well short of expectations, only his reputation is saving him
Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
Harry Redknapp27 April 2017

Pep Guardiola is just about the only manager in the world who could avoid the sack at Manchester City if they finish outside the top four and fail to win a trophy.

That would be a disaster for a club which spent about £175million last summer, having lifted the League Cup and qualified for the Champions League before getting rid of Manuel Pellegrini.

Instead of challenging for the title straight away, as most people assumed City would because of Guardiola’s impact, they are scrambling to make the top four — and that is why tonight’s Manchester derby is bigger for them than it is for United.

Jose Mourinho can still reach the Champions League by winning the Europa League and I can understand why he thinks that’s their best shot.

United have got a horrendous run-in and that’s what I think will kill them, but they have a safety net of a Europa League semi-final that City don’t.

Mourinho has also won the League Cup already and he can hold that up as a sign of progress whereas Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final defeat against Arsenal means it is all on the line in the Premier League for Guardiola.

In Pictures | Arsenal vs Manchester City | 02/04/2017

1/25

The system Guardiola is playing doesn’t suit some of his players and so you’d expect he’s going to get rid of a few in the summer, but only his reputation buys him that time.

Of course, if you have Guardiola’s cv, then any board would think twice about firing him, but that shouldn’t hide the fact they have fallen well short of expectations this season.

City haven’t improved. They’ve looked good at moments during the campaign and obviously started out very well but you can’t say City are a better side this year than they were last season.

That alone would put most managers under pressure, given the expectation level at top clubs these days, but the difference with Guardiola and a very small group of managers like him is that they can get away with saying “the team are in transition — we are building”. He can argue it’s a three-year or five-year project. Great! We’d all love five years at a club to try to make something happen. The plain fact is they should have been better than they are.

City still need another four players to win the title next year. The back four is nowhere near good enough. They need a goalkeeper and we can say for definite now that Guardiola got that situation all wrong by bombing Joe Hart out on loan.

Claudio Bravo always gives strikers prepared to close him down a chance and that has regularly caused panic in a poor City defence.

Not having Champions League football will make it more difficult to attract players, but Guardiola is still a big draw and City will pay top dollar.

All they will do is give the player’s agent a bigger fee than the next club, he will then convince his client that’s the best move for him and talk up the fact it’ll probably be only one year out of Europe’s big competition.

Jose Mourinho lands at Manchester United

1/5

It didn’t stop United signing Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic and it won’t stop City.

City badly need to finish fourth, at least, to avoid all that and I still think they can, mainly because United have a tough fixture list and Arsenal look as though they are too far back.

Arsene Wenger says they have to win all their remaining games and you have to agree, but Sunday’s north London derby — potentially the last ever one at White Hart Lane — will be very difficult to win.

Spurs look the stronger team at the moment and they could kill Arsenal off there and then.

Of course, United spent a fortune, too, last summer and you have to say they have underperformed over the course of the season as well.

A lack of goals at home has hurt them but they are unbeaten in the League since October 23 and if only a couple of those unfortunate draws had been wins, United would be bang there for a top-four finish.

The sheer number of games they have had to play is starting to catch up with them and, having suffered with injuries all season long, they are starting to mount up again.

Ibrahimovic and Marcos Rojo are finished for the season with ligament injuries and that’s a huge blow for them.

It would be embarrassing for Mourinho if United miss out on the Champions League but the pressure is greater on Guardiola this evening. Or at least it should be.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in