Pep Guardiola has said that he would rather win the Premier League again next season than the Champions League.
City stormed to a third title in seven years and Guardiola’s first at the club, finishing with a Premier League record of 100 points.
Guardiola’s side also finished with a record number of goals scored in a season by one team and the record for the total amount of wins in a season.
City were however knocked out of the Champions League by Liverpool in the last-eight of the competition in what was a thrilling tie over two legs.
However two-time winner of the Champions League, Guardiola, insists it would be a mistake to focus more of their attention on the elusive European competition.
Gary Neville asked Pep on a Monday Night Football special whether he’d rather win the Premier League again or the Champions League, to which Guardiola answered:
Premier League. No doubt
It will be a huge mistake to think: ‘OK now we have the Premier League, we are now going to go for the Champions League instead’. Big mistake.
To be out of the Champions League and win the Premier League again, I’d sign it now. The Premier League is the most important thing. It gives you the consistency to arrive at the right moment, the Champions League is so complicated the opponents are so good, all of them.
The Premier League is the most important thing.
Guardiola has previously won the Champions League with Barcelona in both 2009 and 2011 but has not reached the final since.
Asked if he was desperate to win the Champions league again soon, Guardiola said:
Desperate is not the right word, for Barcelona the first they won it was in 1992. Sir Alex Ferguson took his time to win it.
It would be a big mistake tor Man City to be focusing on it, of course it will be a target, of course we will fight.
But for us our big moments of the season when we were in November, December and we were real contenders for the Champions League, but that was because we were doing so well in the league.
That competition, you play at Anfield, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Roma, Bayern, United, Juventus, all of the big clubs.
Of course we are going to try it, but I don’t think: ‘If we don’t win the Champions League in the next five years it will be a disaster!’ I don’t think so.
