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How Manchester City nearly lost out on Pep Guardiola over luxury house demands
New books claims City came close to losing Guardiola, not long after announcing he would take over
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Your support makes all the difference.Manchester City almost lost out on Pep Guardiola becoming their manager because he struggled to find suitable accommodation, a new book has revealed.
Guardiola was confirmed as Manuel Pellegrini’s successor in February 2016 and, since taking charge the following summer, he has led City to two Premier League titles as well as an FA Cup and two EFL Cup wins.
But in a new book titled Pep’s City: The Making of a Superteam by Pol Ballus and Lu Martin, it is revealed that a month after his appointment was announced, Guardiola still needed to be convinced to move to Manchester.
City officials became worried that Guardiola would go back on his decision to join them unless they could find a property which matched up to his living standards in Germany.
Ballus and Martin tell how City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain ordered former player liaison manager David Quintana to travel to Munich to meet Guardiola, telling him: ‘It seems we’ve got a problem with The German.’
“They did indeed,” Ballus and Martin write. “In Munich, the Guardiola family had lived in a spacious mansion on Sophienstrasse. Pep demanded accommodation of a similar standard in Manchester and the issue was in danger of becoming a deal-breaker.
“Quintana and Pep met over a leisurely three-hour lunch in a local Vietnamese restaurant… Lunch was spent discussing key elements of the club’s organisation, infrastructure, players but the issues around the Guardiolas’ new home remained unsolved.
“The problem was that Pep was refusing to live anywhere but the city centre and there just wasn’t the right kind of property there to suit him. It didn’t exist. Begiristain could see all his plans going up in smoke. The deal to bring Pep to City was under threat.”
Quintana, however, told Guardiola: “‘No worries; if we have to, we’ll build you what you want. It might take a few more months, but we’ll make it happen.’”
Guardiola has lived in the luxury City Suites apartments near Deansgate in central Manchester since his arrival, a few doors down from his first signing and City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan.
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