Pep Guardiola has turned Manchester City into the most-feared team in the world… now it’s time to reap the rewards
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PEP GUARDIOLA has turned Manchester City into the most feared team in world football.
Fallen champs Chelsea have come up against the runaway Premier League leaders and mighty Barcelona in the space of 12 days.
And ask Eden Hazard and Co who they would rather face right now and there is no doubt.
It would be Lionel Messi and his mates from the Nou Camp every time – even though they are streets ahead at the top of La Liga.
At least you can get the ball occasionally against them.
Who could have seen this coming during a traumatic start to 2017 for Guardiola and City? It has been some turnaround even by Pep's sky-high standards.
Next week it will be a year since the low point of his Etihad reign – the disastrous Champions League exit to Monaco.
With their Premier League title hopes also in tatters, some City fans even began to wonder if Guardiola was the man to take them forward.
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Maybe his much-admired brand of high-pressing, possession football – so successful at Barca and Bayern Munich – simply wouldn't work in the Premier League.
Pep never wavered in his beliefs though – maintaining all along it was not far away from falling into place.
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"They arrive once, they score," became an all too familiar gripe from the City boss after matches they had failed to win last term.
Skipper Vincent Kompany said earlier this month, the signs were there in Pep's first season in charge for those who bothered to look for them.
Meanwhile the doubters who were waiting for him to fail are having to back-track as his team stand on the brink of an historic season.
Of course it hasn't come cheap – around £440million has been spent since he took charge in summer 2016.
But Pep knew what needed to be done in the summer – new full-backs to give him pace and width – and just as importantly, a new goalkeeper.
He got the ones he wanted and what a difference Ederson and Kyle Walker have made.
Ominously for the rest of the league, we have not seen too much of Benjamin Mendy, Bernardo Silva and Aymeric Laporte yet.
That's more than £150m worth of highly-promising talent right there.
And they plan to spend again in the summer on a defensive midfielder and an attacking player, just to keep things fresh.
Yet so many players have benefited and improved from having more time working with Guardiola, understanding his methods.
All the groundwork has been laid, now is the time for it all to bear fruit with silverware.