They have already been champions of England seven times in 12 years and now Pep Guardiola’s team have repeated the epic 1999 single-season achievement of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United – Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League.
Presumably someone will manage it at some point and gain the League Cup in the same season too….
It won’t be long before some sycophantic media muppet includes the charity shield so they can talk breathlessly about a quintuple, then the world club championship (Christ, even Chelsea managed to win that just 2 years ago) for a sextuple. Nearly as cringeworthy as Americans slobbering over teams, invariably the ones with the highest payroll, achieving a “Three-peat”.
Well-played City though. You have every financial advantage going (whether legal or not) but at least, unlike some clubs, have spent the money wisely and played delightful football for most of the season before hitting the wall a month ago and just making it over the line. That’s when unrivalled squad depth makes the difference. Your manager may be an arse sometimes but who wouldn’t want him at their club?
Will the trophies be confiscated and given to the runners-up if the financial shit hits the law courts fan?
It didn’t reach the law courts but when Saracens were relegated for not opening their books for the salary cap investigations they kept all their trophies and the the rugby press still treat them as some sort of rugby gods because of their ability to win them. To most of the commenters on the rugby blog I read they are referred to as the cheats.
John, while delighted at yesterday’s result, I do feel sorry for Arsenal leading the table all season then throwing it away at the end.
Tim, the precedent is rather clubs not actively participating in competitions. Throwing your third team (in City’s case, fourth team) at the league cup is common practice. One season during their glory years, Manchester United even declined to enter the FA cup.
Last season, Liverpool nearly did it. Two domestic cups, finalists in the CL, (lost 1-0 to Real Madrid), and came second in the PL to City by a single point (short by 5 goals on the difference, tho’).
That, I think gives 68 games as the maximum possible, from (for the PL) a squad size of 25, which can be increased by using under-21s. Very similar for the CL. Various rules apply for domestic, or “home grown” players.
Liverpool’s performance this season, was very similar to their performance in 2020/21, after winning the PL in 2019/20 with 99 points. Which was after finishing second, on 97 points, again behind City by a single point.
City won the PL on 89 points, short by ten or so of their previous performances. In a season where 8 teams were basically utterly shit.
Unless you’ve got something like 5 or 6 under-21s who are really very good indeed, so you can swerve the squad restrictions, I don’t think the Quadruple is really possible, given physical and mental fatigue. Even then, I reckon the following season’s performance would be truly dire.
Boehly’s splurge at Chelsea might have been partially aimed at reducing the overlap between the named PL and CL squads. Which might work.
“Pep Guardiola is the greatest manager football has seen ”
Slightly hyperbolic headline in The Terriblegraph. I think Ancelotti, Paisley or Beckenbauer might like a word.
Clough, Stein, even the Wasp-chewer from ManU?
If the measure is the effect they had on the code’s tactics then would it be Guardiola vs Cruyff in the postwar era?
And versus the people who introduced the passing game into England in the 19th century (Scots, but did they do it as players or as coaches?) and the chap at Arsenal who moved the centre-half from being a half-back to being a central full-back? Come to that, who introduced the system of having two central full-backs?
I suppose I ought to know these things but I find most books on sport unreadably dull. (Don’t read Imran Khan on cricket! Dear God!)
City might have won the league cup had they not been drawn against mighty Southampton in the Quarter Finals.
dearieme: try Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics by Jonathan Wilson, very interesting.
Ta, PaulF. The excerpt available at Amazon answers one of my questions. It was Henry Renny-Tailyour and John Blackburn who took the Scottish passing game south.
Horse of the Year Show? Crufts?
Now that’s an idea Sam D. They could enter Haaland for the Grand National or Gold Cup with little Foden as jockey.