Europe may define Guardiola’s City era but home rule is no mean feat | Barney Ronay
FA Cup success on Saturday would make it five domestic trophies out of the last six for Manchester City under a manager who has made domestic dominance a habit
Veni, Vidi, City. With the Premier League title retained and an FA Cup final to follow there already something imperial about the climax to Pep Guardiola’s first three seasons in English football, a sense of nation-building zeal.
This has always been a part of the grander plan, the intention not just to win, but to win right, to embody a vision, a way of winning. There have been minor bumps in the road along the way, most notably some disorientating defeats in the first Pep-season, the what-is-tackles, let-them-eat-cake days at Leicester and Everton. But Guardiola has refused to bend, and two years later English football has in effect been brought to heel, a stage for that relentless will-to-power.