GUARD DOWN
Inside the mind of Pep Guardiola as he suffers sleepless nights and lives on soup during horror Man City run
Guardiola admits it can be a lonely business being a coach during a bad run
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PEP GUARDIOLA is really finding Manchester City’s current slump difficult to swallow.
The Catalan admitted a run like this can affect everything — from the amount of sleep he gets to his diet.
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Recently, he has just been having soup for his evening meal as he is struggling to digest much else due to the nerves.
With his kids grown up and his wife Cristina back in Barcelona, Pep admits it can be a lonely business being a coach during a bad run.
He said this week: “You have people by your side but the pain of defeat only happens to one.
“It’s true your friends are there but when you go to sleep and you turn off the light, there’s no consolation possible.
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“You have to swallow on it, spend a day or two and then come back.”
But by and large Guardiola says his frame of mind is not much different to how it was in the spring, when his team were crowned champions for a fourth straight year.
That is despite a run of seven defeats in the last ten matches — the same number as City suffered in the previous 105 games up until the end of April.
The decline in his all-conquering team has been sudden and alarming and left many people scratching their head.
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That includes Pep himself, who showed up for his press conference after the draw with Feyenoord last month with marks on his head and a cut on his nose.
At the time he put it down to his nails getting too long — although he explained this week there was another factor.
Man City manager Pep Guardiola sings song for Barcelona's 125th birthday
Pep Guardiola's horror Man City run
PEP GUARDIOLA admitted he is having sleepless nights as he endures his worst-ever spell as a manager.
Here are the three-time defending Premier League champions' nightmare last 10 games...
Oct 30: Tottenham 2 Man City 1 - DEFEAT
Nov 2: Bournemouth 2 Man City 1 - DEFEAT
Nov 5: Sporting Lisbon 4 Man City 1 - DEFEAT
Nov 9: Brighton 2 Man City 1 - DEFEAT
Nov 23 - Man City 0 Tottenham 4 - DEFEAT
Nov 26: Man City 3 Feyenoord 3 - DRAW
Dec 1: Liverpool 2 Man City 0 - DEFEAT
Dec 4: Man City 3 Nottingham Forest - WIN
Dec 7: Crystal Palace 2 Man City 2 - DRAW
Dec 11: Juventus 2 Man City 0 - DEFEAT
TOTAL - WINS 1, DRAWS 2, DEFEATS 7
He said: “I have a skin problem. I have to take antihistamine for the last two or three years. The nails, yes, I did them on my nose. But the rest was that.”
Guardiola turns 54 next month and said in a recent interview he does not have the energy to take another club job after he leaves the Etihad.
The question some have been asking since is whether he has enough within him for the rebuilding job needed at City.
Some of the older players who have achieved so much for him — the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Kyle Walker and Ilkay Gundogan — are reaching the end of the road.
And having achieved pretty much everything he set out to — and even more — with City, some wonder if he has the drive to go again.
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Yet is easy to forget amid the chaos of the last seven weeks, that he signed a new two-year contract at the Etihad in the middle of it all.
It was Pep who indicated he was ready to talk — despite a run of four straight losses before then — and the deal was concluded in a couple of hours.
Given what has happened since and the problems he is facing, he may be asking himself whether he did the right thing.
Those around him say he has no regrets and is more determined than ever to turn the season around.
He accepted the challenge of staying on less than four weeks ago and there is no way he has changed his mind already.
I have a skin problem. I have to take antihistamine for the last two or three years. The nails, yes, I did them on my nose. But the rest was that.
Pep Guardiola
His feeling all season has been that this was not the right time for him to hand over the keys to his successor and three months in, he was sure of it.
The imminent verdict on the 130 charges of financial wrong-doing was a factor, as he has previously said he would not desert the club he loves in their hour of need.
But the Club World Cup in the USA in the summer was also a consideration, as it will make the start of next season extremely difficult to navigate.
Guardiola felt he wanted to navigate City through this tricky period and he remains determined to do that.
In any case, Pep had predicted this would be a tough start to the season — partly due to strain of their recent success and the summer of international duty at Euro 2024 for most of his stars.
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He did not quite expect it to be this tough, though, as the injuries have made the early months of the season even more challenging.
But he remains convinced that once his trusted players are back, he will be able to turn them back into a force.
Nothing that has happened since things started to unravel at the end of October has changed his mind.
He said: “I have learned with football, not to go against feelings, what you feel at that moment.
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“If I am sad, I am sad but I know it will pass. That’s how I see it.”
A derby win over United on Sunday would help it to pass very quickly.
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