Pep Guardiola has welcomed now-former Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag to the City Football Academy for any advice or support in future.
The dismissal of the Dutchman from his position of head coach at Old Trafford made him the first managerial casualty of the season after a hugely negative start to the new season at Manchester United.
The Old Trafford club have moved quickly to try and secure a replacement, leading themselves to Ruben Amorim of Sporting CP, who has received the seal of approval from Pep Guardiola and Matheus Nunes.
That is a conversation touched upon in Guardiola’s latest pre-match press conference, as the Manchester City manager covered his early days at the club, what the future holds across town, and numerous injury updates within his first-team squad.
Ahead of the Carabao Cup fourth round tie between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City in North London this week, here is every single word from the second-half of Pep Guardiola’s pre-match press conference!
On life without Rodri so far
“We are less strong. With him, we are better. And with Kevin (De Bruyne) we are better, and with Kyle Walker we are better, and with Oscar (Bobb) and all the people now with long injuries we are better. But what I said, now he has to recover well for the next season and we have to handle the team and game by game, try to win games.”
On whether Rodri’s absence has given him a new challenge
“The challenge is win tomorrow against Spurs, play a good game, and the other ones. We will see at the end of the season what happens. Imagine in any sports, in basketball and the Golden State Warriors playing without Stephen Curry or Barcelona in his prime playing without (Lionel) Messi. You’d wish it had been different! They should be less strong.
“It’s the same with us! Rodri is irreplaceable, we know it and the players, but we have to move on. Yeah, do it, and what can we say now is that Kova (Mateo Kovacic) is playing there and Gundo (Ilkay Gundogan) is playing there – they were exceptional and one day we’ll play Manu (Akanji) and we’ll play John (Stones) in that position. And I know they will play good. So it’s what we have to do.”
On whether he would invite Erik ten Hag in for some advice and help during his time away from football
“Any time! No, seriously. Many people come and always we are open, but I think he knows exactly what we do, and I think it’s not going to happen but of course, I know his agent a little bit, so the relation is there so there’s no problem for me, for us.”
On whether managers often phone him for advice
“Advice? No. Just take a look. Managers don’t have to ask for advice, they know exactly everyone and what they have to do, because the reality in every club, in every team, and in every player is completely different to the other ones. The advice for copy and paste for other ones, it doesn’t work.”
On whether the turn over of managers in English football surprises him
“No it’s surprising how long I’ve been here, not for the other ones being a short time. Nine years today is a lot! That’s true. Before in England, maybe we were more patient with managers than other countries but now the reality is the pressure is everywhere, the results have to be given and qualify for the Champions League is big for the clubs for many reasons – the sporting aspect, but economically as well.
“What can I say? What I said is if I’m here nine years is because we won many, many times and it’s not putting in perspective of for the way we’re playing or the other ones, no, no. We won, and if we won that’s why I’m the longest one right now. Like who we are, not just me, we are so proud of that.”
On injuries for Tottenham
“I don’t think so (on Jack Grealish).”
On Kevin De Bruyne and a return date
“I don’t think so. I would like to tell you, especially I would like to know it. But I don’t know. I don’t know right now. He feels better and can train, but going to the level that we need for competition, when he kicks the ball or something he still has pain and he doesn’t feel… And Kevin has to feel good, you know, to express his huge talent that he has.”
On whether Kevin De Bruyne’s injury has been more complicated than he anticipated
“Yeah. (Thought he would be back quicker?) Yeah. That’s why I’m not a doctor.”
On whether he is waiting for Kevin De Bruyne to tell him he is feeling better
“No, he’s feeling better but not the best. It’s for sure that if these guys don’t come back as quick as possible, we will struggle. Because we cannot sustain with just 14, 15 players for the season. We need the players to come back. But it is what it is. So hopefully it can happen after the international break.”
On if he has any more ideas about bringing youth players to Tottenham
“There is someone, yeah, but we play against Spurs. They are coming from defeat, I know what’s happened mentally for the managers, the players, playing against Man City – sorry to tell you again – the last four Premier Leagues in a row winners, and I know they will be the best and that’s why…
“You know, Carabao Cup we won also four in a row, always I use the first rounds like playing the guys who didn’t play maybe regularly and when I arrive in the semi-finals and after I take it seriously this competition. Always I take it seriously, but it’s OK we’re going to win it (from the semi-finals).
“But now we have a problem that we have a lot of injured players and I cannot rotate much and of course I don’t want to put too much pressure on the young, young players in this stage, against this opponent, for the way they play. And that’s why I have to make a mix for the players, for split minutes, 45 minutes and 45 minutes trying to decide because we will arrive at 2 or 3AM Wednesday night and Friday morning we have to travel to Bournemouth.
“Bournemouth have all week and is out of the Carabao Cup and it’s a really, really intense game, the way they play, how good they are and that’s why I have to try to think about it a little bit, one eye on that because… And after travel to Lisbon for three days, the recovery will be so difficult this time and that’s why you have to take a look at how the players come back today in the training session, how fresh and try to minimise the mistakes in the selection.”
On John Stones playing at striker
“No… After nine years, I’m not a funny guy, I know that. But some jokes you have to get it! Of course, he can play a few minutes, but as a striker from the beginning, I don’t want to ruin his career.”
On his best options at striker in any absence of Erling Haaland
“I don’t have much, but some ideas I have. We will see, we will see tomorrow.”
On Ruben Amorim and the biggest lesson to learn coming to England for the first time in a debut season
“Only I can talk is about the experience I played twice against Ruben’s Sporting Lisboa team one or two seasons ago, and the impression was really, really good. I spoke with Matheus Nunes that was his player and he spoke highly about him.
“And look at this season, he’s unbeaten winning all of the games in the Portuguese league and the Champions League the same points with us. So a highly manager, so I have the feeling that if Man United, what I hear, is thinking about him it’s because he’s a good manager.
“So Man United don’t appoint managers that don’t meet that level. All the managers they’ve had in the last five, six, seven years we cannot say they are not able to lead Man United. What’s going to happen, I don’t know, and what happened in my experience here doesn’t mean it works for the other ones.
“Everyone is everyone because managers are the team, the club, the structure, the physios, the doctors, the players – it’s many things! And what happened here doesn’t mean it’s going to happen in another place.”
On whether a move to Manchester United might be too soon for Ruben Amorim give his quick rise in the game
“Why so quick? What is the problem? I started in Barcelona at 37 years-old coming from the fourth division, so knowledge is knowledge. If you are able, it doesn’t matter. For that reason, Lamine Yamal could not play football at 17 years-old, right? So he has to wait till 24. And there are people who are 56 or 57 that are not able to be a manager. What is important is the talent, if you are good. It doesn’t matter the age. Right?”
On whether there was any point in his first season at Manchester City where he was fearing for his job
“Never. I never had that feeling.”
On how he lived with the pressure in the first season
“I handled it good. After I won my first season the sextuple with Barcelona, every year the people asked me for the treble. When I’m sitting here, the people, all of you, ask me, ‘When are you going to win the Champions League? You are here to win the Champions League’.
“So I spent seven years to do it. So I know it, and I know because I deal with Txiki (Begiristain), or with Ferran (Soriano), or with the people there and they knew perfectly that everything, sometimes it’s quicker, needs time. And doing it in two seasons is quicker! It’s so, so quick, to win the Premier League just in the second season. So sometimes you need…
“But I know one of the reasons why I came here is because I know the people above me, the people who judge me if you will continue or I sack you, we know eachother quite well. I knew it was a process and we analysed it and in the first season we did many, many good things.
“The way we played, we played really, really good. It was a team like Chelsea under Antonio Conte that was unstoppable, playing one game a week and they were a machine. So they deserved and they were better, but we learned from that.
“It’s what I’ve said before, sometimes you need to lose and make the process to know what is going on. The problem is when you judge just exclusively for the results. The club judge for that? They are in trouble.
“To sustain just the results and the idea is the fundamentals and the process is getting better, and better, and better, and better you are not judged from that, the clubs are unstable. And I never had that feeling. Maybe they felt it, but they never made me feel that they were thinking of that.
“Another issue would have been the second or third season, getting worse and not good, of course I would not be here. Maybe I would’ve been the first to say, ‘Guys, I’m not able to get results and the Club is better to change the situation’. So it’s not much more difficult than that.”