Pep Guardiola revealed the secret to Manchester City’s success is down to him and the club’s hierarchy all going together in the ‘same direction’.
The Spaniard guided City to a dominant 3-0 victory in Sunday’s Manchester derby at Old Trafford as goals from Erling Haaland and Phil Foden were the difference.
His comments carry significant weight with City continuing to go from strength-to-strength since their Treble-winning heroics last season, while United are looking like a club going in reverse.
Guardiola has been in charge of City since arriving at the Etihad in 2016, bringing tremendous success with him and transforming the club into English football’s dominant force.
During the same time, Man United have parted company with Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, with pressure similarly now beginning to mount on Erik ten Hag after a difficult start to the season.
A long-running takeover at Old Trafford that originally started almost 12 months ago is continuing to be dragged out, and Guardiola’s post-match comments show a glaring difference between the two Manchester clubs.
Explaining City’s structure, Guardiola said: ‘We are in the same direction, me, the CEO, the sporting directors, the chairman. That is why I think the club is so stable.’
When asked about the difference between Man Utd and Man City after the derby match, Guardiola told reporters: “I know what we have done but I don’t know what United have done because I’m not here.
“But I didn’t expect it, honestly, when I arrived here it was Jose Mourinho, with Ibrahimovic, with top, top players, Lukaku, I’ve had the feeling the squad is really…
“But I think I’ve said many times we [City] are in the same direction – the chairman, the CEO, the sporting director, the manager and the players.
“We go there, wrong or right, it doesn’t matter, we [all] go there. We make mistakes, of course, when we lose or the situation is not going well, we are not here to blame someone, it’s just, ‘okay, what do we have to do better? What happened? Is the opponent getting better or are we getting worse?’. Find a solution, that is nice.
“We’ve done it since day one. First season we didn’t win, I didn’t feel my chairman complain, absolutely not, he supported me unconditionally.
“I remember we lost the Champions League final against Chelsea, I was devastated and the chairman said, ‘sooner or later we’re going to win it, what do we have to do next?’.
