Where do you go once you’ve reached the top? The Carabao Cup (again)?
That’s the challenge facing Pep Guardiola next season after Manchester City’s Treble success. There are two carrots he can use in trying to motivate his players.
One is becoming the first side to do the quadruple by doing it all over again but this time with a League Cup in February. The other, probably more likely ambition, is to become the first team in the Premier League era to win four consecutive titles.
This City side are serial winners and it would be a shock if another trophy isn’t added to the cabinet, especially with the Community Shield, Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup to go at.
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But after these early-season competitions, Guardiola will need to find a new source of inspiration for his players. “I think the job is done,” he told a Spanish news outlet in the days after the Champions League triumph.
“This Champions League already gives meaning to the five Premier Leagues that we won. But it is also true that we need to go home, disconnect more than a little and knowing all of us, when the adrenaline starts again, we will plug in again."
Speaking to the media after the win in Istanbul, Guardiola looked visibly exhausted - happy, but tired. You can be sure he will be chomping at the bit by the time August comes around, though.
He will want to avoid the situation he found himself in after City’s 4-2 January comeback win over Tottenham, when the Blues were two goals down at the break. Broadcasters expected the manager to be in a jovial mood at full time, but far from it.
“There is nothing from the stomach and the guts,” he said of his players in an interview rant that lasted a number of minutes. “Passion, desire, to win from minute one.... I don’t recognise my team. My team always have passion, desire, and run and everything.”
It was a moment in the campaign that sent a public message to his players. A number of them have since reflected on that post World Cup period up to and including February's draw with Nottingham Forest as a defining phase in the Treble run.
Ideally, it’s not something they will want to go through again. It’s been well-documented how athletes can drop off after reaching the pinnacle of their sport. City have been praised for their elite mentality but perhaps that will be tested best when the new season returns.
Going again takes an immense amount of mental strength and Guardiola’s ability to inspire will be called upon again. He’s had experience, though, and has been successful with it too.
After his Treble feat with Barcelona in 2008/09, he won La Liga again, Spain’s Super Cup, UEFA’s Super Cup and the Club World Cup the following season. Four out of six trophies ain’t bad. The Blues have the opportunity to win seven pieces of silverware - ‘the Septuple’ - next campaign.
Let's leave that distant carrot dangling there, for now.
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