Pep Guardiola has been challenged to win the treble by Manchester City ’ s ambitious owners as the Premier League club aim to bounce back from a disappointing campaign.
Guardiola ’ s first season with City was a damp squib as they ended without a trophy after failing to push for the title and crashing out of the Champions League in the last 16 .
City also fell short in the FA and League Cups in a rare season of underachievement for Guardiola , who was a serial trophy winner during his spells in charge of Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
Guardiola ’ s first season with City was a damp squib as they ended without a trophy after failing to push for the title and crashing out of the Champions League in the last 16 .
City also fell short in the FA and League Cups in a rare season of underachievement for Guardiola , who was a serial trophy winner during his spells in charge of Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
However , City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak believes Guardiola ’ s track record of 21 trophies in his previous seven years as a manager proves this season will be a brief blip before a more successful future .
“We will try to win the Premier League and the Champions League and that remains our objective , ” Khaldoon told City ’ s website .
“That ambition of winning the Champions League and hopefully doing it , that dream excites me very day and knowing we can do it .
“The dream of doing the Treble , yes. I want to do the treble , or else let ’ s go for the quadruple ! Why not ?
“We should have that aspiration . I have it , no doubt . ( City owner) Sheikh Mansour drives me for it every day , but you look at the organisation you see it in Pep ’ s eyes in everybody within our group .
“Pep wants to win it all and that ’ s what I love most about him because that ’ s how I feel , we want to win it all.
“We might not be able to achieve it , but I can assure you, we ’ re going to try to do that . ”
Despite the disappointment of finishing third in the Premier League , Khaldoon insists the club ’ s Abu Dhabi -based backers have put everything in place to deliver silverware.
Guardiola has already started overhauling his squad , releasing a host of players and signing Monaco playmaker Bernardo Silva , with Benfica goalkeeper Ederson on the verge of moving to Eastlands .
“We ’ re on the right track . We have a great manager , we ’ re all working behind him , supporting him , ” Khaldoon said.
“We are going to do our work this summer.
The trajectory is right and I ’ m very optimistic.
“Next year is going to be a massive year for us . Expectations are high , ambitions are high .
“I have a lot of hope that we ’ re going to come back next season very strong and I hope we can deliver to our fans an incredible season next year . ”
(AFP)
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