The improbability of Pep Guardiola managing a happy camp in his sixth successive season at the same football club certainly was not on the Manchester City boss ahead of Tuesday’s trip to face Sporting Lisbon.
“Maybe it is because I am such an easy-going man, it is so easy to work with me. That’s why they create a good environment,” Guardiola chuckled in response to a follow-up question to his claims that this is the most harmonious City camp he has known since moving to Manchester in 2016.
At that time, you’d have got very long odds on the prospects of Guardiola leading the Blues into the 2022 Champions League knockout stages. After four era-defining years at Barcelona, the famously intense tactician took a 12-month sabbatical.
