Pep Guardiola suggests Man City trophy bonuses should be scrapped as stars ‘don’t deserve even a watch’ this season
PEP GUARDIOLA admits he and his underperforming Manchester City stars do not deserve a bonus if they are crowned world champions this summer – not even a souvenir watch!
The outgoing Premier League champs head to the States to take part in the first ever FIFA Club World Cup this summer.
It is a competition which City’s Abu Dhabi owners are placing great focus on – and FIFA upped the stakes this week by announcing astonishing prize money.
The winners will walk away with around £100 million – roughly what the bottom-placed Premier League club makes over the entire season in TV and prize money.
That would normally mean a healthy bonus coming the way of City staff.
But straight-talking Guardiola says he and his staff on and off the pitch will not merit it, after their miserable domestic campaign.
He said: “We don’t deserve it this season.
“We don’t deserve a bonus this season. The bonus, if you win, I don’t know how much.
“You go there, (winning) it’s for the club. The managers, the backroom staff, the players we don’t deserve, not even a watch.”
Eye-watering bonuses are part and parcel of the top-level game, with reports that City regulars pocketed around £2 million each for winning the treble two seasons ago – half of that for success in the Champions League.
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Nonetheless, Guardiola’s under-achievers can still salvage something from their poor domestic season by winning the FA Cup.
Fifth-placed City visit Bournemouth, who have slipped to 10th, in the quarter-finals on Sunday.
Guardiola said of the Cherries: “They have a special way of playing and it works with the players and the ideas that they have.
“Every team plays in a specific way and they do it really well. Other teams are more direct, other teams want more crosses.”
Guardiola is aiming to become only the fourth manager since World War Two to lift the FA Cup for a third time.
The other three are certainly managerial legends too – Bill Nicholson, Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.