Tuesday, 9 April 2019

MANCHESTER CITY ON COURSE FOR A HISTORIC QUADRUPLE.


With only two months left of competitive football, with no international breaks to halt momentums, the Sky Blues would hope their talented squad full of depth can propel them to a historic season. Having bagged the Carabao Cup already in February, Pep Guardiola's men are still in contention to clinch the Premier League, Champions League as well as the FA Cup.

Manchester City remain the only club across Europe's top five leagues vying for all four major titles, the quadruple.

Never in the history of English football has any team managed to be highly dominant and fortifying amassing all four titles in a single season. Not the great Sir Alex Ferguson's 1999 United team that swept aside the big guns en route to a remarkable treble. Not Arsene Wenger's invincible Arsenal side that never faced the chill wind of league defeats. Not even the great Liverpool team of the late 70's led by Bob Paisley who guided his side to back-to-back European Cups(now UCL). The list goes on and on yet no divine team pops-up as quadruple-winners.

To start with, maybe the laboriousness of such supreme achievement is underrated. Further, another rationale might be clubs prioritizing certain trophies in a realistic sense and not just going for all but at the end nothing. In another dimension, lack of squad depth and injuries might be the basis why quadruple looks almost impossible to attain, somewhat veridical.

When the supreme Manchester United team of 1999 amassed the historic treble, they only missed out on the EFL Cup, losing 3-1 to eventual winners Tottenham in the Quarter-finals. The Red Devils have been the closest team to have almost managed a quadruple in a single season, with a treble to show up for, in a season that arguably was the best ever in the clubs history.


A few weeks ago, when Kevin De Bruyne was quizzed about City's quadruple hopes, the Belgian claimed it would be "almost impossible" for the Sky Blues to manage such a magnificent feat, Pep Guardiola emphasising the difficulty too.  A response that eases off pressure on the English champions, perhaps also, lowering the high expectations of City fans.

Just a decade ago, when Pep Guardiola begun his managerial career at Barcelona, he won the treble in his maiden season going on to win six (6) titles in the 2009 year. A sextuple, never happened in the game before. Not in the days of old had any coach managed to win every single trophy in a particular calendar year, especially in their first managerial season. The current City manager once led Barcelona to 14 out of 19 trophies marking an era in which the Blaugrana were assertive, dominant and ruthless, reinvigorating a brand of football which won many applause and admiration.

Ten years later, having matured as a coach and having had a great deal of experience now finds himself with a City side who are almost as dominant as his Barça. In as much as the 48-year-old Spaniard is of the idea that the quadruple claims from the media is ridiculous, he is the man that oversaw a club that devoured and were utterly domineering in an era, the 2009 Barça sextuple-winning team. He has the magic, he just might be able to make history, clinch the quadruple that seems to have ever escaped the very best English teams.

The Premier League for now looks unlikely to be decided any time soon until the very end, a spirited Liverpool side that seems to have self-belief and will, never looking like stumbling or faltering, in fact playing with unparalleled verve, giving the Cityzens a run for their money.

Also, a nail-biter Champions League clash with Tottenham in the Quarter-finals. An onerous venture that further puts City through their paces as a team dubbed as quadruple-winners. An FA Cup final against a stubborn Watford in mid-May, every single trophy of utmost importance.

The former Bayern Munich manager would try every trick in the book to win it all. A quadruple for Pep Guardiola's City, might as well establish them as one of the greatest English side to have marked an era. Certainly, Pep Guardiola would be undeniably regarded highly, in the topmost echelons, as high as Sir Alex Ferguson.


Credited to Bright N. B. Antwi



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