Does Pep Guardiola have drive to rebuild broken Manchester City?

The current iteration is done and manager must decide if he has the energy for exhausting process of reconstruction. There was some talk after Manchester City’s win against Newcastle United last Saturday that City’s players had been inspired, freed from their shackles and generally reinvigorated by the club’s recent legal victory in a tribunal hearing over certain time-specific aspects of financial regulation.

Could this be true? Are we underestimating the effect of these things? Did the pitch mics at the Bernabéu pick up Nico González in the pre-match huddle saying: “Lads, we’ve all absorbed the news about the related third-party transaction rules being declared improper. I am as a consequence bang up for this.” Did the cameras detect Savinho whispering: “Guys, we are now free to seek our own definition of market value. This commercial potential is hugely energising. Hit me early over the top.”.

There will be suggestions that sport doesn’t work like this. Some will object that the logic doesn’t stand up because Newcastle’s players should also have been running on pure, uncut sovereign fund deregulation vibes, equal partners in a joyful 5-5 draw. Who can really say for sure? In the end, all that really seemed certain at the Bernabéu was that City’s Big Tribunal Energy had mysteriously dissipated.

English champion teams have found themselves outmatched in this competition before. Although perhaps never quite like this. The likes of Blackburn at least had the good manners to look confused, angry, ready to do someone. City collapsed like a rain-sodden cardboard box, a sporting entity with no resistance, no fibre. A 3-1 defeat really could have been anything at all.

At the end of which three things seem true. First, the current iteration of this great team is now done. This was its last dance, a chance to go down, if not with all guns blazing, then with all guns gently ticking over in search of forensic incision.

Instead, City were meek in a way that still comes as a shock to those yet to see it in the flesh. In Spain the buildup to this game was dominated by a debate over the precise meaning of a key English swearword, with linguists and native speakers consulted on the nuances of Jude Bellingham’s controversial red card F-word. Pep Guardiola’s team have at least offered some clarity. People of Spain, watch the highlights back. This is what completely fucked looks like.

The second certainty is that City will be back. This is not the end, because the end cannot exist now for clubs with these resources. Not only will the project endure, the project is already clearing new lines of finance via its elite tribunal game. Defeat in Spain, a single bad season. These losses can be absorbed when the sport is stratified as never before.

The third thing relates to Guardiola himself, who once again delivered his public response like a man strapped to a wheel of pain, unable to process defeat, failure or elements beyond his reach. City will rebuild. But does Guardiola really have the will and the capacity to curate another era?.

With this in mind it is necessary to emphasise just how bad City were in Madrid. The numbers don’t get near it. By the end, City had 12 shots to Madrid’s 15. They shaded the possession and passing. In reality, this was a night of humiliation for Guardiola, his team olé’d about the place, rondo’d off, treated like cones. As early as the 20th minute it was startling Madrid were still only 1-0 up as those white shapes romped around the empty spaces, the crowd gushing idly over its favourites, clapping Raúl Asencio like proud parents as he completed a back pass. Kylian Mbappé barely broke into a sprint while compiling his hat-trick. But then, why sprint when the space is already there?.

None of this is unusual in outline. Things fall apart. Great teams decay and regenerate. Play enough times and you will eventually lose. The wider question for a manager who is obsessed with legacy and the due rewards of history is how much did Guardiola’s own errors contribute to this? And how successful has his time at City been when it comes to the greatest prize?.

“We have achieved something unique in our country and in Europe, we have won once and we have been there many times,” Guardiola told Spanish TV. It is a generous definition of unique. There are those in Spain who like to dwell on Guardiola’s relative failures in Europe given the scale of resources at his disposal.

His 2011 Barcelona team are still the greatest of the century, a total re-gear of what it meant and felt and looked like to dominate elite football. But it does seem odd now that the creator of that team has won the competition once in 14 seasons since, reaching two finals, losing to Spurs, Monaco, Chelsea and others along the way. This despite having total patronage for his vision, the greatest riches, best facilities and most elite intelligence ever made available to any manager.

The current season is Guardiola’s worst in European competition. The last seven games have brought five defeats and one win against Club Brugge. There has been for the first time a sense of being behind the curve. Paris Saint-Germain tore City apart playing like a classic Pep team. Madrid did the same playing like a modern iteration, deep possession and rapid attacks.