After winning their fifth trophy in an incredible season, Pep Guardiola believes that a greater number of people now want Manchester City to fail than ever before.
After winning the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, and European Super Cup in 2023, City added the Club World Cup to their trophy case with a 4-0 thumping of Brazilian team Fluminese in Saudi Arabia. On Wednesday, they will play Everton in English domestic competition.
While Guardiola won six medals in 2009 while managing Barcelona, the Catalan team won La Liga, Copa del Rey, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup, Champions League, and Club World Cup crowns. No club in English football history has had such a good year.
“It is a business, you get credit when you win,” City manager Guardiola said ahead of his side’s trip to Goodison Park. “You don’t win you are nothing, zero, what you have done in the past.”
The Spaniard added: “As much as you win, they want you to fail. More than ever. I felt than when we won the sextuple in Barcelona.
“It’s normal. They don’t want (us to win). In these 14-15 years what we have won, the titles, is unbelievable.
“People say ‘how good they play, how genius it is’. But they give credit just because we win. They don’t have to look further than that.”
The Manchester club’s first Club World Cup was won by City over Fluminese, after a fruitful five days in Saudi Arabia that manager Guardiola described as having “created incredible team building and team spirit.”
It was all quite different from their recent performance in the Premier League, where they had only won once in the last six games, dropping City to fifth place in the standings and six points behind leaders Arsenal.
“In the moment you don’t win you are going to get doubts, absolutely everything,” said Guardiola. “But that is what is nice. That is OK. Doubt again, we’ll see what happens.
“I said before when we played incredibly well against Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Tottenham and don’t win.
“It’s a real proof they don’t care the way we play. We played the best levels quite similar to these (past) eight years and we don’t win. It’s a ‘disaster and crisis’.
“Of course we have bad moments like Aston Villa, who were better. But what’s the problem?
“They can play better so we have to accept it and move forward. The reality is we are happy, but they are waiting for us around the corner (to fail).”
But Guardiola, who spent Christmas with his family in Barcelona, insisted his focus now was firmly on Everton.
“Nothing else exists than Goodison Park,” he said. “The greatest athletes forget as quick as possible the success. They celebrate it, but around the corner is another competition.”
After suffering an ankle injury against Fluminense, City is hoping Rodri will be available, but they are unsure about the availability of Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, and Jeremy Doku.