Pep Guardiola opened up on Manchester City’s uncertainty after their efforts to sign Harry Kane in the summer transfer window were rejected.
Pep Guardiola said: “We tried but it was far away to be done because Tottenham was clear this is not going to happen. And when it happens two, three, four times, it’s over. After we saw the squad and the way we played and I said we were not sure what we had to do or where we had to go. Now you can say ‘Harry Kane didn’t come and everything is going well’ but at the time I didn’t know it. When we lost to Spurs in the opening game and Leicester in the Community Shield. And I don’t know what will happen in the next few weeks.”
Guardiola has won titles in previous years despite an absence of key personnel – left-back is a particular area where City have been forced to innovate – and this season has forced the team to work more on their attack; Phil Foden has grown into the No.9 role, and set-pieces have played a more important role in their goalscoring.
Pep Guardiola said: “The club gave me these players, and I’m always delighted – and now it’s what can we do together. This is the point. Maybe if we had a proper striker we would play with a striker but with the players we have we have to adapt. I adapt for the good moments, the performance for the players and for many reasons I adapt. It’s not a problem. In the first season I played with [Fabian] Delph and then [Aleks] Zinchenko as a left back and it’s not a problem. I’m not asking them to go up and down like a typical left back. They adapt their quality. The club is beyond everyone and I know they do the best or me. I know them when we lose we are sad but nobody is pointing fingers saying ‘your fault, your fault, your fault’. We don’t do that. What can we do to improve – whether that’s now or in the transfer market and I love to work in this way. They know it’s not going bad, it won’t break the relations because we are not good enough to bring the team to a high level. I don’t feel they talk bad about me when we have bad results. That’s why I’m happy here. At other clubs when you lose it’s ‘what’s the problem.”
