No Champions League glory at Bayern Munich saw Pep Guardiola draw
criticism, but Trevor Sinclair says it will be different at Manchester
City.
Pep Guardiola will be a success if he guides Manchester City to the Premier League title, says Trevor Sinclair.
Guardiola
will replace Manuel Pellegrini at the Etihad Stadium helm for next
season, departing Bayern Munich on the back of three straight Bundesliga
championships.
However, the Spaniard was unable
to lead the Bavarians to glory in the Champions League, prompting
questions over whether his reign has been a success or a failure.
Sinclair
does not believe Guardiola will be judged as harshly when he arrives in
Manchester, with a top-flight title and matching City's Champions
League semi-final best likely to be enough to placate the board.
The
former City winger told Omnisport: "I think certain people say it's a
failure [not winning the Champions League at Bayern] but when you're
winning the Bundesliga with games to spare, I wouldn't say that.
"The
Champions League is one of those competitions it's very difficult to
compete in. It's never been retained, so it was a difficult job going in
there and being expected to win the Champions League - especially with
the strength in depth in Spain and some of the English teams.
"I
think you look at it now, if he comes in and wins the Premier League he
will be looked upon as a success because they were nowhere near this
year really, so that would be a forward step.
"Let's see if he can get at least as far in the Champions League and I'm sure the board would be happy with that."
Sinclair
believes any success Guardiola enjoys at the Etihad Stadium is reliant
on City's close-season recruitment, and the former England international
expects imminent announcements on new arrivals.
"I
think it's going to be interesting over the summer. It'll be
interesting to see who he recruits, and I think that will mould how
successful he is," he continued.
"I would imagine
from when they released the statement that he's joining he's been
working on players that he would like to bring in and I'm sure a lot of
the deals will be quite close.
"So we will see how
soon he gets that done in the summer and then obviously back for
pre-season and seeing how the new style of play evolves."
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