The end game for Sheikh Mansour
It’s clear to me and most other football fans that the end game for Man City owner Sheikh Mansour is to win the Champions League, and it has been clear for quite a while. City have been involved in the competition since 2011, and despite Mansour spending over £1billion of his own money on the club, City are yet to reach a final – Something even Tottenham, who are notoriously quite tight with their cash, achieved just last year.
It was during Manuel Pellegrini’s tenure that Sheikh Mansour made it clear that he expects City to win the competition soon. I’m sure when Pep Guardiola was brought in (A man who has won the UCL twice as a manager) Mansour will have been getting high hopes of his dreams coming true. However, it remains to be seen whether or not that will happen.
Can Manchester City win the Champions League this year?
Man City have had a perfect start so far. They’ve played three matches, won all three and have conceded just a single goal. Keep this form up and they’ll win the group quite comfortably, giving themselves good momentum to take into the knockout stages. A trip to Olympiacos is next for Guardiola and his players… If you fancy them to win, you can back them with the Betfair £20 risk free offer. You can place up to £20 on City goals/result and get your money back if your bet loses.
As far as City winning the whole competition, they need to hold their nerve when it comes to the latter stages. It’s all well and good dominating in the group stages, but it’s when it really matters where they’ve come unstuck in recent years. They’ve reached the semi-finals previously but they were edged out by Real Madrid. The good news for Man City is that I believe they’ve surpassed the likes of Madrid in terms of overall quality, and that is shown in the outright odds.
City are currently the second favourites to win the Champions League this year behind Bayern Munich who are clearly the strongest outfit amongst the elite of European football. You can back City at odds of 9/2 with Betfair, and don’t forget you could use the Betfair risk free 20 if you’re picking them to win their next match.
If Pep Guardiola can’t deliver European honours, who could replace him?
Pep Guardiola is one of the best managers in world football, there’s no doubt about that. He has entered the last year of his contract with Manchester City, so if he doesn’t win European honours this time around, could it see the end of this project? Hypothetically speaking, it would be interesting to see who would come in to replace Pep, and if they’d provide a better chance of winning the UCL if he can’t get it over the line. The current favourite to be next in charge of City is current Wolves manger Nuno Espirito Santo. He’s followed by RB Leipzig’s Julian Nagelsmann and Giovanni van Bronckhorst of Chinese side Guangzhou R&F.
Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see if Pep Guardiola can achieve what Sheikh Mansour brought him in to do, and something that he’s well capable of – As proven by his time with Barcelona. They’re currently leading the group which they should win with ease, so let’s see how they go on to do in the knockout stages where performances really matter.
