For the Sake of His Reputation Pep Guardiola Needs Champions League Success

Examining the reasons behind Manchester City’s appointment of Pep Guardiola doesn’t take too much effort. As a club with ambitions of one day—in the not-so-distant future, they hope—holding a place among Europe’s elite, they sought one of Europe’s elite managers. Why they would want Guardiola is obvious.

But there are various strands to Guardiola’s appeal. There are the philosophical and ideological ideals he brings to every club he takes charge of. That is a large part of why City spent the past few years attempting to lure the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss to the Premier League.

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Guardiola is also synonymous with European success, having won the Champions League twice as a coach. The image of him lifting the famous trophy is intertwined with his own image, and to City, that is greatly appealing. They view him as the man to establish the Abu Dhabi-owned club as a continental force to be reckoned with.

However, Guardiola’s reputation as a go-to guy for European success is under question. Bayern Munich, just like City, wanted the Catalan to do as he had done at the Camp Nou—build a continental dynasty with the Bavarian club. He failed to do so, though. Bayern did not win the Champions League in three years under Guardiola, falling short of the expectations that had been set for him.

Now he has a reputation to restore. He is still considered one of the finest coaches in the European game, maybe even of all time, but Guardiola’s continental capacity has been placed under scrutiny of late. At Manchester City, he isn’t just under pressure to deliver Champions League success from his employers, but from the footballing sphere as a whole.

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This is the issue with unparalleled success. Guardiola has been held to an impossible standard ever since he led his legendary Barcelona team to treble glory in 2011, winning the club’s second Champions League title in three years. It is now expected that he will enjoy similar glory wherever he goes. That is unrealistic.

Having said that, his European struggles at Bayern Munich leave something of a blot on his otherwise perfect copybook. At the Allianz Arena, he had every resource needed to turn the Bundesliga champions into continental champions, and yet he fell short every time. 

He will have similarly hefty resources at the Etihad Stadium, with City’s squad tuned to his precise specifications in the transfer market this summer. Joe Hart’s loan exit to Torino and Claudio Bravo’s arrival as his replacement underlines how Guardiola has been given complete control to shape the club as he likes.

With such freedom comes the expectation that he will deliver instantly. Of course, that might not be especially feasible as Guardiola’s coaching philosophy takes time to take root, but this is the bed that he has made for himself. He can therefore have few complaints now that he has to lie in it.

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City will rue yet another difficult group-stage draw, with Guardiola’s side drawn alongside Barcelona, Borussia Monchengladbach and Celtic. The Etihad Stadium side have endured some rotten luck in the Champions League in recent seasons, and that has carried over to this season. There will be no easy induction to continental competition for Guardiola as City boss.

“I'm worried about Monchengladbach,” he admitted, per Stuart Brennan of the Manchester Evening News. “I know them very well. The Champions League starts in the first round and not in the knockout stages. You cannot make mistakes. If you relax in the first two games, you are out.”

Indeed, Monchengladbach are the only Bundesliga side that Guardiola failed to beat home and away over the course of his three-year stint as Bayern Munich boss. If the Catalan has a bogey team, they are it, and now they will have the chance to cross him once again at his new club.

However, it is the return to Barcelona that presents the most compelling narrative for Guardiola as he embarks on his first season in English football. According to Brennan, Guardiola had this to say upon City’s drawing of his former club:

"

We will play against the best. Nobody plays better than Barca.

The three players up front make the difference but there is also a lot of work that goes at the back.

You can see in the way they play that work has been done at the back and is what Luis Enrique has done and will continue to do in the coming years.

They are the best and it's a great test for us. We will see what level we will give.

"

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There is no denying that City’s group-stage draw provides a challenge, but if they are to become the European force they aspire to be, they must embrace the task at hand. Guardiola’s team should still be strong enough to qualify for the last 16 as one of the top two teams. Perhaps they should view the draw as an opportunity to put down a real marker by finishing top—that would be a statement of their steadfast intent.

Nonetheless, Guardiola could have done without Manuel Pellegrini leading City to the semi-finals of the Champions League last season. That means that anything less than a final-four appearance will be considered something of a failure. Guardiola needs to lead City to the final for any genuine progress to have been made. In that sense, he has been dealt a tough hand.

But the biggest and best clubs are expected to deliver the biggest and best results, and that is what Guardiola has been appointed to do. Can you envisage either Barcelona or Real Madrid bemoaning a difficult group-stage draw? These kind of teams are expected to make the final four, at least, season after season. This is the realm City are now operating in. They must embrace everything that comes with it.