On Saturday, Pep Guardiola scoffed at suggestions that he was the best coach in the history of the sport. He said that he lives with “incredible doubts” despite the fact that he led Manchester City to the triple in the previous season.
City, under the direction of the Spaniard, became just the second English side after their archrivals Manchester United to win the FA Cup, Premier League, and Champions League all in the same season.
But when asked whether he was the best player of all time, Guardiola responded by saying that he was “not a god” after landing in Japan for City’s pre-season trip there.
“I live with incredible doubts in my head,” stated Guardiola. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be good enough.”
“If I had more success in my career, I’ve said many times that I was in Barcelona with the players that you know perfectly, and I was in Bayern Munich, and now we are here.”
“We are building and doing something incredible I would not expect when we arrived,” he continued to say after the previous statement.
Since 2012, City has won a total of seven Premier League championships, including five in the previous six seasons when Guardiola has been the head coach.
After defeating Inter Milan 1-0 in Istanbul at the end of last month, they were awarded their first Champions League championship.
Guardiola issued a stern warning, stating that “there is nothing certain about football.”
“Now I’m not thinking about titles or these kinds of things,” he stated before City’s game against the J-League winners Yokohama F-Marinos on Sunday in Tokyo. Yokohama F-Marinos won the league last season.
“One step at a time, tomorrow we play our first game, and then we’ll see what happens when the transfer window closes and which team we’ll have,” he said.
According to the defender Nathan Ake, the manager is not allowing any of his players to rest on their laurels and enjoy their success.
The 28-year-old player said, “Obviously, last season was a great season for all of us, but we also know that football keeps moving forward.”
“The past season is the past season, and we are all in the mindset to compete once more.”
Kyle Walker has been mentioned as a potential transfer target for Bayern Munich, but Pep Guardiola would not clarify whether or not Walker will still be at City when the new season begins.
“I want the best for my players,” he stated. “I will do whatever it takes.”
“Of course, I talked with Kyle, and everything is in order; at this point, we’ll just have to wait and watch what takes place.
“I cannot tell you anything because he is still thinking about that,” he said after saying that to me.
Aside from that, he did not provide any reassurances to Joao Cancelo, who was on loan at Bayern for the last month of the previous campaign.
“Joao has been so important for us in the past,” Guardiola added. “We could not have succeeded without him.”
“He has returned, and he is now a member of this organization. We will have to wait and see what unfolds.”
Wednesday in Tokyo will be City’s match against Bayern.
They will then compete against Atletico Madrid in Seoul, where they will fly after that.