Guardiola on Madrid no show at Ballon D'or, Spurs and City injury latest
29/10/2024
CFGA, Manchester, UK
29/10/2024
CFGA, Manchester, UK
Category
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00:00With him, we were better. With Kevin, we were better. With Kai Walker, we were better.
00:05With Oscar and all the people now, for a long time, we were better.
00:09But, like I said, now he has to recover well for the next season,
00:14and we have to handle the team game by game, so, yeah, try to win games.
00:20Has it given you a bit of a new challenge, to win without Rodri?
00:24Because he's been so important for you, hasn't he?
00:27The challenge is to win tomorrow against Spurs, play a good game, and the other one.
00:31So, we will see at the end of the season what happens.
00:34So, imagine any sports, basketball, Golden State Warriors play without Stephen Curry,
00:42or, you know, Barcelona in his prime play without Messi.
00:46So, we should be different. We should be less strong.
00:50So, it's the same with us. So, Rodri is irreplaceable.
00:54We know it in the players, but we have to move on, do it.
00:57And what can I say now, that Kobe is playing there, and Gunda is playing there,
01:02they were exceptional, and one day we play Manu, and we play John in that position,
01:06and I know they were playing good. So, it's what we have to do.
01:10Hi, Pep. Obviously, you said Eric ten Hagel, come back stronger from his experience at United.
01:15If he phoned you up and asked for some advice to help him come back stronger,
01:19if he wants to come in here and see how you operate, would you invite him in, would you speak to him?
01:23Ten Hagel come here? To see us? Any time.
01:27No, I'm serious. Come many people and always we are open, but I think he knows exactly what we do,
01:34I think it's not going to happen, but of course I know his agent a little bit,
01:39so the relation is there, so there's no problem for me, for us.
01:43Do managers often phone you for advice?
01:45Sorry?
01:46Do managers often phone you for advice?
01:48No advice, no. Just take a look.
01:51Managers don't have to advise us, they know exactly what they have to do,
01:55because the reality in every club and every team and every player is completely different to the other ones,
02:02so the advice is to copy-paste for the other one, it doesn't work.
02:08Pep, I think you're the longest-serving manager in English football now,
02:11I think you were in the summer when Jürgen left, does it surprise you, that turnover of managers still?
02:17I think we were working it out, United's next manager will be the sixth manager while you've been in Manchester,
02:24does it surprise you, that turnover and the fact that jobs are so precarious?
02:28No surprise, how long I've been here, not for the other ones a short time.
02:36Nine years today is a lot, that's true.
02:39Before England maybe were more patient with the managers than the other countries,
02:44but now the reality is that the pressure is everywhere, the results have to be given,
02:50and qualifying for the Champions League is big for the club for many reasons,
02:56the sporting aspect, but economically as well.
03:03What can I say, I don't know.
03:07What I said is that if I'm here nine years, because we won many, many times,
03:13it's not to put a perspective on that for the way we're playing,
03:18no, we won, that's why I'm the longest one right now.
03:23We are, not just me, we are so proud of that.
03:27Can I just check on injuries, are any of these players, I think you mentioned the other day,
03:31maybe Grealish had a chance before the international break?
03:33I don't think so.
03:34Any date on Kevin yet?
03:36I don't think so.
03:37Do you know when Kevin will be back at all, have you got a date?
03:40I would like to tell you, especially I would like to know it, but I don't know right now.
03:48He feels better in training, but go to the level that we need the competition,
03:54when you kick the ball or something you still have pain and he doesn't feel,
03:58and Kevin has to feel good to express his huge talent that he has.
04:04Has Kevin's injury been more complicated than you first thought?
04:08Yeah.
04:09You thought he'd be back quicker?
04:10Yeah.
04:11That's why I'm not a doctor.
04:15Sorry, just on that Pep, are you waiting for Kevin to tell you he's feeling better
04:19or is it the doctor to tell you?
04:21No, he's feeling better, but not the best.
04:23For sure if these guys don't come back as quick as possible, we'll struggle,
04:29because we cannot sustain for just 14, 15 players of the season,
04:33so we need the players to come back.
04:36But yeah, it's what it is.
04:38So hopefully that can happen after the international break.
04:45And on that subject, you said on Saturday that you might ask a few youth players
04:49to come up for the match tomorrow.
04:51Are you a couple of days on?
04:53Do you have any more idea whether you might bring a few youth players
04:55down to London tomorrow?
04:57There is someone, yeah, but we play against the Spurs.
05:01They are coming for defeat.
05:04I know what's happened mentally, the managers, the players,
05:07playing against Man City, the last – sorry to tell you again –
05:11four Premier Leagues in a row winners, and I know they will be the best,
05:15and that's why – you know, Carabao Cup, we won also four in a row.
05:24Always I use the first rounds, like I play the guys who didn't play
05:28maybe regularly, and when I arrive in the semi-finals,
05:31and after I take seriously – always I take seriously –
05:34OK, we're going to win it.
05:36But now we have a problem that I have a lot of injured players,
05:40and I cannot take like I would match, and of course I don't want to put
05:44much, much pressure for the young, young players to be in this stage
05:47against this opponent for the way they play.
05:50And that's why I have to make a mix for the players,
05:54for split minutes, 45 minutes, let's try to say,
05:59because we will arrive at 2, 3 a.m. Wednesday night,
06:04and Friday morning I have to travel to Bournemouth.
06:08Bournemouth all week is out for the Carabao Cup,
06:10and it's a really, really intense game, the way they play, how good they are,
06:16and that's why I have to try to think about it a little bit,
06:20to have an eye on that, because after travelling to Lisbon for three days,
06:25the recovery will be so difficult this time,
06:27and that's why you have to take a look at how the players come back
06:31today in the training session, how they are fresh,
06:34and try to minimise the mistakes in the selection.
06:40You mentioned the other week, Pep, about Jon Stones playing up front.
06:44Is that something you would...
06:46No.
06:50Is that something you would consider off the bench?
06:53After nine years, I'm not a funny guy, I know that,
06:56but some jokes you have to get it.
07:02Of course he can play a few minutes,
07:05but as a striker from the beginning, I don't want to ruin his career.
07:12I suppose with Erling can't play every game,
07:16who are your best options if he doesn't play?
07:21I don't have much, but some ideas I have.
07:25We'll see tomorrow.
07:29Next week you play Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League.
07:32Their manager, Ruben Amerim, is heavily linked with Manchester United,
07:35could be in this city by the time you play Sporting.
07:39What do you know of him?
07:41From your experience, you had a time to adjust in your first season.
07:46How difficult is it, and what's the biggest lesson to learn
07:49coming to England for the first time in your debut season,
07:53if you cast your mind back?
07:55All I can talk is about the experience I played twice
07:58against Ruben's Sporting Lisbon team, one or two seasons ago.
08:03And the pressure was really, really good.
08:06I spoke with Mateus Nunes, that was his player,
08:09and I spoke highly about him.
08:11And look, this season he's beaten or winning all the games
08:14in the Portuguese League and the Champions League,
08:17so he's got some points with us.
08:20He's a highly manager, so I have the feeling that if Man Utd,
08:25what I hear that they're thinking about him,
08:29is because he's a good manager.
08:33Man Utd has no point managers at that level.
08:37All the managers I have in the five, six, seven years,
08:39we cannot say they are not able to lead Man Utd.
08:43So what's going to happen, I don't know.
08:46What happened in my experience here doesn't mean it works for the other ones.
08:49Everyone is everyone, because the manager is the team, the club,
08:53the instructors, the physios, the doctors, the players, it's many things.
08:58And what happened here doesn't mean it's going to happen in another place.
09:02Would it be too soon for a manager like him?
09:05Because he's had a very, very quick rise from being an under-manager, if you like.
09:11Why so quick?
09:13Why is the problem?
09:14Six, seven years ago he was doing his badges,
09:16and now he's being touted for Manchester United.
09:19I started Maradona when he was 37 years old, coming from a division.
09:24So knowledge is knowledge.
09:26If you are able, it doesn't matter.
09:27For that reason, La Minamá could not play football when he was 70 years old.
09:31So he had to wait until he was 24.
09:34And there are players who are 56 or 57, they are not able to be managers.
09:38The important thing is the talent, if you are good, it doesn't matter the age.
09:43Just going back to the first season again,
09:47you've been here nine years now, it's a long time,
09:51but you've also said plenty of times that if the results are not there,
09:55then you will not keep the job.
09:57Was there at any point during your first season here in Manchester
10:00that you were fearing that maybe now I can actually lose my job here?
10:04Never.
10:07I never had that feeling.
10:09But how did you live with the pressure then,
10:11when the results in the first season were like they were?
10:14I handled it good.
10:16After winning my first season with City 7, the second with Barcelona,
10:19every year the people ask me to travel.
10:22When I'm sitting here, all of you ask me when I'm going to win the Champions League.
10:27You are here to win the Champions League.
10:29So I spent seven years to do it.
10:32So I know it.
10:34I know because I deal with Chiqui, with Ferran, with the people there,
10:38and they knew perfectly that everything sometimes is quicker and needs time.
10:44And doing it in two seasons is quicker.
10:47It's so quick to win the Premier League just in the second season.
10:50So sometimes you need...
10:52But I know one of the reasons why I came here
10:56is because I know the people above me,
10:58that the people judge me.
11:01You continue, I thank you.
11:03We know each other quite well.
11:05I know it was a process, and we analysed it.
11:08Because in the first season we did many, many good things.
11:11The way we played was really, really good.
11:13It wasn't a team like Chelsea or Antonio Conte.
11:15It wasn't unstoppable.
11:17Play one game a week and it was...
11:19We were a machine.
11:21They were better, but we learned from that.
11:23It's what I said before.
11:24Sometimes you need to lose and meet the process to know what is going on.
11:30The problem is when you judge exclusively for the results.
11:33The club judges for that, they are in trouble.
11:36But to sustain the results, the idea is not the fundamental,
11:39and the process is getting better and better and better.
11:43You are not judged for that, the clubs are unstable.
11:47And I never had that feeling.
11:49Maybe they thought it, but it never made me feel that they were thinking of that.
11:53Another issue was the second or third season.
11:55In the second or third season, it's getting worse and not good.
11:58Of course, I will not be here.
12:01Maybe I will be the first to say,
12:03guys, I'm not able to get results in the club.
12:05It's better to change the situation.
12:07It's not much difficult than that.
12:10Ready? Let's go.