Manchester City fans have spent the day laying palms at the feet of one Pep Guardiola, as he has been unveiled as their new manager before thousands of adoring supporters. Manchester City's Youtube account - rightly recognised as the best in the Premier League - streamed the event using a fancy 360° camera.
Guardiola spoke to the masses as part of the announcement. Here are a couple of quotes via City's twitter account:
Pep: "I have to know my players. Hug them - kick their a***! One of my dreams was to play here as a footballer. Now my dream has come true."
— Manchester City (@ManCity) July 3, 2016
That final quote is the main one. "One of my dreams was to play here as a footballer" is the managerial version of Robbie Keane signing for yet another of his boyhood clubs. It is a fine way for Guardiola to pay tribute to the club, and inculcate himself among his new supporters, but we're fairly sure that the anguish of not getting to play with City did not exactly ruin his career.
Presumably, Pep dreamed of joining City as a player after he left Barcelona in 2001: when City were in the first division. In fact, during Guardiola's 16-year playing career (1990-2006), City spent just nine seasons in the top-flight, with five of these during Guardiola's halcyon days with Barcelona.
Elsewhere, someone from the crowd shouted out whether Pep would sign Leo Messi. He responded:
He’s not a bad player, this guy. But I’m sorry, Messi has to stay in Barcelona for the rest of his career.
