Pep Guardiola makes Manchester City sack admission

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola admits that he would have been sacked by any other club following his side’s prolonged winless run earlier this season.

Man City are set to face rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday as they look to maintain their push for Champions League qualification next season.

The defending Premier League champions have recently started to resemble the dominant side that won the last four Premier League titles in a row.

However, this prospect seemed like a distant dream for Man City fans after a horror run of just one win in 13 games across all competitions during November and December.

The slump left them languishing in an unfamiliar seventh place in the table on Boxing Day.

“One of the main reasons has been the absence of many injured players in important departments so we were competing in toughest period with only 12 to 13 senior players in the team,” said Guardiola.

“This season I was not able to help the team to do it. I was not able to find the right trick. In the past I was able to guide them, to tell guys, ‘this is the path you have to do to survive in that moment’, because the good moments will come.”

While Guardiola acknowledges that he expected a drop-off in form after his side won four consecutive titles, he did not anticipate it being this severe.

“I said many times and I’m incredibly honest – the success that we had in the past, that surprised me because I wasn’t expecting it,” he said.

“What happened this season, when in the last one or two seasons more or less, I said it’s going to happen. But I didn’t expect maybe so deep, you know.

“I thought, ‘okay, we’re going to drop’. But in terms of results, in terms of performance, we dropped unexpectedly.

“In other clubs, without the recent success, I would have been sacked, definitely. This is a big club that you have to deliver good things.”

“But also I think all of us, the staff, myself, we deserve a chance, after what we had in the past.

“In another club, in another environment, we lost a lot of games in the big clubs, it cannot happen. But fortunately, they [the City board] gave me a vote of confidence to continue.”