Pep Guardiola not making any promises to change English football but he will bring Barcelona flair to Manchester City

Guardiola makes no predictions for what the next three years will hold, but he believes the style that made him famous can succeed in the Premier League

Pep Guardiola refused to predict what will happen during his Manchester City reign (Getty)

Manchester City’s new manager Pep Guardiola has cautioned that he is no Messiah and that to suggest that he can change the mentality and style of British football would be “presumptuous.”

Guardiola said in an impressive inaugural press conference at City’s academy that he could not yet say what the next three years held and that the question of how to succeed in the Premier League should be put to him half way through the season. But he insisted that he believed he could replicate his Barcelona and Bayern Munich success in Manchester.

In contrast to the bombastic style of Jose Mourinho, the new Manchester United manager, he implied that he would have to fit in with the British game. “I come to the country who create football and to believe you have to change something would be a little bit presumptuous,” the Spaniard said. “I’m not good enough to change everything. To change the mentality of a club [after more than] 120 years would be presumptuous. I trust a lot in myself. I think I am able to do the job. But I don't come here to think I can change the mentality or the culture of England.”

Guardiola acknowledged that Mourinho has “six years” head start on him in the Premier League and admitted that no one would be willing to cut him any slack because of that, with the expectation being that winning would come immediately.

The new manager said that though he wanted to help Raheem Sterling develop and re-discover form, it was ultimately up to the player

“Sterling has the quality,” he said. “He just has to focus on his life, his profession and I’m pretty sure he will play good. The players want to talk, talk, talk but the only way you can talk at the end is if you win. What do you want? We can talk here, in the office, anywhere.. but at the end it depends what happen on the green [turf.]”

He did not offer a ringing endorsement of goalkeeper Joe Hart, whose form was poor at the Euros. “At the moment, there’s no doubt about [it]. He’s No. 1,” the Spaniard said.

Asked if he rated Hart, he said: “We’re always looking for the best option to create a better team. But in that moment I’m not concerned about that. I don’t worry about that – the performance of Joe Hart in the Euros. It’s important to know what is their quality - to analyse their quality and to decide what we are going to do with him. It’s similar with Sterling.”

Guardiola said that he was in the Premier League to prove he did not need Lionel Messi or an experienced group of players like Bayern Munich’s to be a winner. “I was in Barcelona where I had absolutely everything: the best player ever (Messi) and one team where most of the players grew up from the academy (Bayern) so I knew them.”

He admitted no one would cut him slack because he is a new Premier League manager: “People don't expect to see in January and February how good we are,” he said. “They expect first friendly game against Bayern Munich [this month] how good Pep is. I need time. I know I don't have time.”

He also said that his relationship with Yaya Toure, whom he sold when Barcelona manager, was good, but was less effusive in his talk of helping galvanise him. “I know Yaya from a long time,” Guardiola said. “He did very, very well in Barcelona and here as well. He is a huge star and all the players who are here now come to me. After that, we will see what happens. Yaya is here. I connect to him.”