Man City face a bigger rebuild than Man Utd with Pep Guardiola needing half a dozen top players in transfer window
PEP GUARDIOLA always insisted this season would be an almighty challenge — but he never expected the proof to be so painful.
After four titles in a row with a Manchester City side that many people — myself included — were calling the best in the world only a couple of years earlier, he wasn’t the only one.
Nobody doubted the need for a total rebuild in Manchester, although you might well have been talking about Ruben Amorim’s boys, too.
With United heading for their worst season since they went down in 1974 and with their own boss slaughtering his side, it’s one that has got bigger by the week.
So if anything summed up how City haven’t so much slipped but absolutely plummeted, it is the notion Pep, not Amorim, is the manager with the biggest rebuild on his hands.
That, plus the fact there is actually a grain of truth in the joke that Sky are promoting today’s Old Trafford game as the mid-table Manchester derby.
Pep knows nothing lasts for ever. And with the FA Cup up for grabs, there is every chance he won’t end without a trophy for the first time since his debut year in England.
But the problem is when you’ve made such a habit of winning, that doesn’t make for a successful season.
Make no bones about it, this has been a disaster. City started as odds-on to win a fifth title on the bounce. With eight games left, they can’t even be sure of the top four.
For years it’s not been about whether City will win a trophy, more about how many. If it’s “only” one there are those who even see it as a disappointment.
CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS
If you’d said in August that, with two months to go, it would be FA Cup or bust I’d have laughed in your face.
By the way, don’t think that’s a gimme either. The bookies may have City as huge favourites but they’re not playing like it.
There hasn’t been much of the season when they have.
I have to admit I don’t think they will do again — not without a mass overhaul.
Losing Kyle Walker was massive, especially when you’ve had to play people out of position to replace him at right-back.
Something he has had to do all season on the other flank, too.
Kevin De Bruyne is still a fantastic player but not the one he was, Ilkay Gundogan is coming to the end, and Bernardo Silva could be off this summer.
Rodri will be fit again, of course. But how long will it take to get up to speed again?
So you see what I mean about how the Etihad rebuild is quite probably even bigger than the one at Old Trafford.
There’s still the verdict — and potential punishment — from the charges [for allegedly breaching the Prem’s financial rules] hanging over them. How’s that going to affect things?
Pep has been brilliant with what he’s created. There’s every chance it will go down as the greatest side the Prem has ever seen.
But climbing that high means there is farther to fall if you stumble… and City are struggling to keep their feet right now.
It demands genius recruitment this summer, and I keep asking the same question: where do you find the talent at the level they need?
Arsenal spent a year looking for a centre-forward and couldn’t manage it. Pep faces the same problem in about half-a-dozen positions.
After so many titles and a Champions League, a top-four finish is no reason to celebrate. Even with an FA Cup thrown in.
There’s a reason I’m tipping a draw today. Not because it’s a battle between two giants who will cancel each other out — more that neither is good enough to win!