Man City pray Guardiola can build a dynasty out of disaster

The best news for Man City fans since the weekend is that Pep Guardiola will not be able to wriggle out of his contract at the Etihad even if the club finish outside the top four, which is suddenly a distinct possibility.

Defeat in the Manchester derby and injuries to key players have left the team looking a bedraggled bunch, battling not for the title, but to cling on to fourth place in the table.

"The Europa League probably wasn't mentioned when City's chief executive Ferran Soriano and director of football Txiki Begiristain sold the club's vision to their old friend Pep Guardiola," says Chris Wheeler of Mail Online. "The Spaniards can only hope it stays that way, as Pellegrini fights in increasingly difficult circumstances to secure a top-four finish and Champions League football for his successor. Anything less would be an absolute disaster."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Paradoxically, it is the "Guardiola factor" that is at least partly to blame for the position Manchester City find themselves in, argues Wheeler.

Others are not so sure, but point out that it highlights the job the incoming manager will have on his hands when he arrives in Manchester.

"City had never really got going before the news [of Guardiola's appointment] and they certainly haven't kicked on in the seven weeks since, as starkly demonstrated in Sunday's Manchester derby," says Alan Smith in the Daily Telegraph. "The edge has gone from their game. The intensity and hunger simply isn't there amongst a squad capable of so much more."

The news about Guardiola and his methods may not have gone down well with everyone in the squad, he suggests.

Nonetheless, the club is hoping he will "build a dynasty" at the Etihad even if "leading the club in the Europa League during his first season would not be the ideal start", says Jamie Jackson in The Guardian. They are hoping that the environment in Manchester will persuade Guardiola to stay beyond his initial three-year contract.

"But before then the challenge is to ensure Guardiola does not have the anticlimax of Europa League football as he tries to build a club that can dominate for a generation."

And Guardiola's standing in the game may be enough to ensure that players who would usually only countenance playing for a Champions League team could still be lured to the Etihad – the new coach has his eye on as many as five big signings in the summer.

Turning round City's fortunes would certainly present a different challenge to the ones Guardiola has faced at Barcelona and Bayern Munich.