Xavi – a key part of Guardiola’s hugely successful four-year tenure at Camp Nou – says the Premier League and the wider football world could have cause for excitement.
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The imminent arrival of former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola from Bayern Munich is undoubtedly a cause for excitement among players and supporters. The news of his hire quickly became the top news story on Facebook and Twitter, before the ink was dry Manchester City was buying and selling players for next year. “At Inter Milan, he also had success against him and at the moment, I can’t see anyone taking on Pep and his tactics at Manchester City”, he said on Thursday. Not with me and not with other players either.
But McCarthy, who won consecutive Portuguese titles as well as the Champions League at Porto, said suggestions his former boss is “damaged goods” are “majorly unfair”.
City agreed to tour the region after China Media Group bought a 13 per cent stake in the club. It will be sensational for the Premier League as it was during their time at Barcelona and Real Madrid, until things got twisted away from football.
The 34-year-old, who has 21 worldwide caps for his country, has only made two first-team appearances for fierce rivals United since arriving from FC Barcelona back in January 2015. Toure had been seen in only a holding midfield role or central defense at Barcelona by Guardiola, but Roberto Mancini with a more pragmatic footballing philosophy was able to make use of Toure as a central midfielder and at time an attacking one.
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“We all have only one goal: to finish this season with as many trophies as possible”. But the challenge for Guardiola isn’t winning – it’s lifting City to that status as a perennial powerhouse, both at home and on the continent.
