Champions League choke an appropriate conclusion to Man City's season of arrogance

Eamonn Sweeney

Talking Point

Pep Guardiola makes his point to Rodrigo and Kevin De Bruyne during Manchester City's defeat to Lyon. Photo: Getty Images

August 17 2020 02:30 AM

You could practically see the whole Manchester City project rotting in front of you on Saturday night.

Had it all been for this? The arrogance, the amorality, the vainglorious claims of justification after the CAS let-off and the massive mountains of money that led to a molehill of a performance against the seventh best team in France?

Was it really so surprising that a team which had already lost to Norwich City, to Spurs, to Southampton and twice to Wolves would also fall to Lyon? City's season had been leading all along to their quarter-final humiliation in Lisbon.

In previous Champions League campaigns under Guardiola, City had lost to the scarcely elite likes of Monaco, Spurs and a Liverpool side two seasons away from its prime. On those occasions too, their eventual conquerors had been entirely dismissed beforehand.

There was an awful lot of talk before Saturday's game about how Guardiola would prepare for the challenge posed by Bayern Munich. As Oscar Wilde said, you'd need a heart of stone not to laugh.

This City season embodied modern football at its most decadent. All through the Premier League campaign, the club's band of brother millionaires struggled to stay interested. Confronted by Liverpool's remorseless excellence, Guardiola's men gave an aristocratic shrug of the shoulders and faded tamely away.

We were assured that the Champions League was what really mattered to City this time. This apparently excused their fitful league form even though last season Liverpool had been well able to fight on both fronts.

The problem was that City got into the habit of inconsistency. It's less than a month since the lacklustre FA Cup semi-final show against Arsenal which greatly resembled Saturday's supine fadeout.

Why presume this kind of display would not recur against Lyon? Even the most expensive teams can't afford the luxury of coasting through the season and presuming the big performances will automatically be there when needed.

City's season was epitomised by the 60-second spell during which Raheem Sterling's unbelievable miss was followed by the Ederson mistake that gifted Lyon the match-clinching goal. All season world-class players have done careless things in the City shirt. It was never going to end well.

Guardiola enabled the entitlement and lassitude which now characterises City. All year he has been very easy on himself. Reverses were blamed on VAR or the ref or bad luck. Anything but the shortcomings of the team itself.

This 'it'll be alright on the night' attitude seemed to seep through to the players. It meant that when things weren't alright against Lyon they appeared befuddled while their boss, as on similar European nights, cut a strangely passive figure.

Guardiola's achievements are undeniable but his almost unique career trajectory may have become a significant weakness. Parachuted in right at the top with Barcelona, he has spent his entire career managing teams which enjoy massive advantages over their domestic opposition.

Jurgen Klopp, by comparison, not only had to make Borussia Dortmund competitive with the Bayern Munich behemoth but spent seven years of an apprenticeship with Mainz, experiencing both promotion to and relegation from the Bundesliga along the way.

Alex Ferguson had to steer Aberdeen between the Scylla of Celtic and the Charybdis of Rangers before taking over a Manchester United team which hadn't won a league title in almost two decades. This is the most common type of path for top managers. Paris Saint-Germain's Thomas Tuchel is another Mainz graduate, RB Leipzig wonderkid Julian Nagelsmann's first job was at relegation threatened Hoffenheim and Rudi Garcia of Lyon, who comprehensively won the tactical battle on Saturday, spent over a decade managing Dijon, Le Mans and Lille.

Guardiola is a better manager than those three but he doesn't cope well with adversity. How could he? He's had to deal with so little of it.

At Bayern and City, Guardiola constructed intricate and beautiful machines of enormous power and sophistication. When functioning at maximum efficiency they were awesome to behold. Yet they were prone to surprising fragility in stressful situations.

Think of a Bayern team which had ridden roughshod over all domestic opposition going out to a limited Atletico Madrid side, of City conceding six goals over two legs to Monaco and three at home to Spurs last season. Think of the surrender against Liverpool at Anfield and this latest debacle against Lyon.

Saturday's loss makes it eight Champions League failures on the trot for Guardiola. And it is Champions Leagues which Bayern Munich and Manchester City hired him to deliver.

Up to now his reputation has remained miraculously unscathed by such setbacks. It may be different this time. All season it was as though City were borrowing on the strength of the Champions League heroics to come. Now the cupboard looks pretty bare.

Blatant

But Guardiola has always been a favourite of a British media whose blatant attempts to reingratiate themselves with City by hailing the CAS decision took cravenness beyond the call of duty.

Why risk falling out with the biggest bullies on the block? Especially when Guardiola's reaction to City's reinstatement showed a desire to settle scores which, in all its 'there was lot of criticism of this team' glory, would have done credit to the most embittered junior hurling team manager.

The latest glitch will be glossed over quickly enough. Soon Lyon will be forgotten in the same way they were before the match. It will have been just one of those things. Never mind the quality, feel the 'war chest'. Maybe Messi will arrive to try and help his old boss back to the promised land.

It won't matter. The moment is gone. A campaign which has finally the tide finally go out for Messi and Ronaldo may also have seen the rot start to set in for Guardiola and City.

So the sporting wing of the Abu Dhabi regime is never going to win the Champions League. What a pity.