Guardiola: I have more power than ever before

Pep Guardiola says he has more power at Manchester City than he has ever had as a manager.

Guardiola will play a central role in reshaping City’s squad at the end of the season after they crashed out of the Champions League to Monaco this week.

City are also 10 points behind Chelsea in the Premier League, with the FA Cup – a competition in which they will play Arsenal in the semi-finals – representing their best hope of a trophy in his first season at the helm.

While Guardiola has insisted wholesale changes are not required after reports suggested the squad was set for a massive clearout, he is relishing the added responsibility.

“All the managers and sporting directors want to improve and get better,” he said ahead of Sunday’s home league match against Liverpool.

“Even the team that wins the triple will still make changes, so a team that does not win the Champions League or gets to the final will make changes. I knew that.

“I have more power than ever in my life as a manager. For me it is a big challenge and I want to deal with that.

“I met the big boss [owner] Sheikh Mansour in Abu Dhabi and I know the plan. We are thinking about how to get better.

“For players and managers, it depends on the results, but I want to be involved in that as much as possible to help my team to make the next step.”

#Pep : We have to improve and we are going to try to be more stable in the next season. There is a big gap to improve. #mcfc

— Manchester City (@ManCity) March 17, 2017

Guardiola continued: “A lot of people say about our performance in Monaco and we will have to make [changes to] 12 or 13 players. But that is impossible today to do that.

“You have to be a little bit more responsible. You have to imagine a club – 16 players? They might have a contract and you have to pay their salaries. 

“And spending £40million to 50m on every [new] player means you would have to spend £500m-£600m! It is impossible.

“We will try and improve the team but it is impossible [to do that much] with the way the transfer market is.”

Guardiola also revealed he had received a supportive text message from chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak after the Monaco defeat.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss added: “I appreciate that a lot. In the good moments and bad moments, especially in the bad moments, I am really impressed.”