Forever Blue With Ian Cheeseman

What a week to be a Manchester City fan. Pep Guardiola signed a contract extension, which has to be the best news imaginable for the Blues

The modern club has been built in his image and for Pep. I believe that the confirmation that he’ll be in charge for another two seasons after the current campaign is a big clue about the next destination of a certain Lionel Messi.

Guardiola has brought unimaginable success and style to the club I have loved, supported and reported on throughout my life. I am so grateful for the journey he is taking my club on. However, that doesn’t make him beyond criticism. I feel no sense of entitlement as a City fan, despite the quality of our coach and the resources at his disposal. I have seen this club experience everything from humiliating defeats to the unbelievable highs of the Sergio Aguero late title winning goal.

Soon after that great news City travelled to Tottenham in the Premier League and Pep’s team lost and you’d be forgiven for thinking that Pep’s not the genius I’ve just been praising. He seems to have a stubborn side, not only with the way he selects individual players but also the tactics, ie the structure, in which those players perform.

He has stuck doggedly with Rodri as his holding midfielder and he continues to believe that Riyad Mahrez can be an effective wing wizard. I disagree with both those selections and while the defeat at Spurs wasn’t as simple as those two players being selected, the fact that his team only seems to know how to play one way is clearly, in my opinion, his achilles heel.

There will be a huge debate among City fans about other players who should have been in his team and those that should have been left out. The nature of football is that if your team wins the manager is a genius who’s team selections are beyond criticism but after a defeat, like the one at Spurs, every armchair fan, like me, knew better.

The way I look at City’s indifferent start to this season, three Premier League wins out of eight, is that the departures of Kompany, David Silva and Leroy Sane plus the absence of an aging Fernandinho, from the key position of defensive midfielder and the injuries to veteran scoring sensation Sergio Aguero have a lot to do with City’s relative dip since the back-to-back titles and domestic treble. I also believe that football being played in empty, echoey stadiums is making a huge difference. Just take a look at the La Liga table in Spain. David Silva’s Real Sociedad are top with Real Madrid in fourth and Barcelona down in 12^th.

How’s this Premier League season going to go? Well if I knew that I’d be a millionaire in May so I can confirm that I have no idea. What I can say, with confidence, is that Pep Guardiola has a big job to do during this season, and the two that are to follow, if he’s to equal or even surpass the amazing success he’s had during the first few years of his time at Manchester City.

It definitely feels like Lionel Messi is now a real possibility, whether that be in January or next summer. There’s a whole different debate to be had about the merits or otherwise of signing the greatest player of his generation in the twilight of his career. In simple terms, it seems to me. If City sign Messi they boost their world wide profile beyond recognition and guarantee that the Etihad will have no empty seats once this pandemic is over. The counter argument is that the other ten players in the City team, when he plays, are going to have to work their socks off to allow Messi to light up key moments with his brilliance and of course the club will once again be accused by their detractors of trying to buy success.

If winning the Champions League is the holy grail for Manchester City and they achieve it with Messi in the team Pep will be labelled as the man who couldn’t win it without him. I’ll let you mull over that one and pick your side on that debate, because if I’m right that’s a conversation that we’ll be having again and again in the coming months.