The outside world discussed a potential treble last year long before the Manchester City manager did, and then his team turned it into a reality. Guardiola did not spend his time musing about a double treble this year. He has a tendency instead to talk up his rivals: one of them, Real Madrid, eliminated City from the Champions League. Another, Arsenal, still lead the Premier League in the final week of the season.
Yet now Guardiola has his eyes on a prize. Not merely the Premier League trophy, either, or the prospect of back-to-back domestic doubles. A manager who has won more in 15 seasons in the dugout than many a storied club has done in well over a century has certain standout feats. Ones that have eluded great teams and managers, ones he is confident will stand the test of time.
Last season’s treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League was only the second ever recorded, following Manchester United in 1999. City’s triple-figure campaign in 2017/18 – England’s first, and so far only, centurions in terms of top-flight points – was another rare accomplishment. A third could beckon. There have been hattricks by champions, sides winning the English title three years in a row, whether Huddersfield in the 1920s or United in the 2000s. No one has ever turned it into a quartet, finishing at the summit in four consecutive campaigns.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 14, 2024 من The Independent.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 14, 2024 من The Independent.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Ambitious Everton look for upgrade on the Dyche grind
Sean Dyche was never the manager Everton really wanted.
Everton ease to FA Cup win as team reboot starts
They are not used to cheering the men in the technical area.
THE ART OF NOISE
Alt-popper Ethel Cain lashes listeners with sound on her experimental second LP, 'Perverts'. Helen Brown submits
Kidman is utterly fearless in unabashedly sexy 'Babygirl'
Dutch writer-director Halina Reijn has made a BDSM film rife with fumbling uncertainty, and comedy-drama 'A Real Pain' manages to stay honest,
The secret shame that saw Callas retreat into obscurity
She was the opera diva with a tumultuous and tragic private life but something else would derail her career as one of the greatest singers of all time, as Meghan Lloyd Davies explains
At home with Gen Zzzzz
Being boring has never been more in - but Kate Rossiensky wonders if the humblebore lifestyle is a deflection technique
PLAYING DUMB
As the thoroughly decent (and rather smart) Kasim is ejected from 'The Traitors', Helen Coffey asks whether intelligence has become a hindrance that should be concealed at all costs
The woman who cried wolf and fuelled a local race war
When Ellie Williams told of her experience at the hands of a grooming gang, it seemed clear what was right vs wrong. But the truth, writes Zoë Beaty, was much more complicated...
Biden hails 'strength of character' in Carter tribute
Every living American president filed into pews at the Washington National Cathedral yesterday to honour one of their own at the funeral for Jimmy Carter, who died late last month at 100 years old.
Wake up and smell the fires
We live in a 'magic bubble' of denial but the LA infernos and Covid before it demonstrate why we must be better prepared