PEP GUARDIOLA took a cheeky dig at Manchester United as he welcomed their neighbours back to the winner’s circle after a six-year trophy drought.
The Red Devils lifted the Carabao Cup with a 2-0 victory over Newcastle on Sunday — their first piece of silverware since 2017.
In that time, Guardiola has led Manchester City to nine trophies.
Guardiola said: “Congratulations to United for the Carabao Cup. Sooner or later it should happen, shouldn’t it? Welcome.
“United have to be there. They’re in the position they normally should be.
“The reality is that two teams, Liverpool and ourselves, have done incredibly well with the numbers. Now it’s closer.”
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Asked if United are now back as a major rival, Guardiola said with a smile: “Maybe. If they spend a little more money, yes?
“Because they didn’t spend, did they?
“When I landed here I thought United would always be there, for the history, for everything, and Erik ten Hag is doing an incredible job.
“And the players . . . you see how committed they are, how all together they try to do it after they have been five or six years without winning one title.”
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Guardiola’s men won the Carabao Cup four times in a row from 2018 — but admitted the first of them, a 3-0 win over Arsenal, was the most exciting.
He said: “For the staff it was new, for the players it was new.
“The fourth time we travelled there to win the Carabao Cup for the fourth time in a row, it was, ‘Well, it’s OK, another one, another day in the office’.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
