Premier League title would make Guardiola a City success – Sinclair

Pep Guardiola will be a success if he guides Manchester City to the Premier League title, says Trevor Sinclair.

Guardiola will replace Manuel Pellegrini at the Etihad Stadium helm for next season, departing Bayern Munich on the back of three straight Bundesliga championships.

However, the Spaniard was unable to lead the Bavarians to glory in the Champions League, prompting questions over whether his reign has been a success or a failure.

Sinclair does not believe Guardiola will be judged as harshly when he arrives in Manchester, with a top-flight title and matching City’s Champions League semi-final best likely to be enough to placate the board.

The former City winger told Omnisport: “I think certain people say it’s a failure [not winning the Champions League at Bayern] but when you’re winning the Bundesliga with games to spare, I wouldn’t say that.

“The Champions League is one of those competitions it’s very difficult to compete in. It’s never been retained, so it was a difficult job going in there and being expected to win the Champions League – especially with the strength in depth in Spain and some of the English teams.

“I think you look at it now, if he comes in and wins the Premier League he will be looked upon as a success because they were nowhere near this year really, so that would be a forward step.

“Let’s see if he can get at least as far in the Champions League and I’m sure the board would be happy with that.”

Sinclair believes any success Guardiola enjoys at the Etihad Stadium is reliant on City’s close-season recruitment, and the former England international expects imminent announcements on new arrivals.

“I think it’s going to be interesting over the summer. It’ll be interesting to see who he recruits, and I think that will mould how successful he is,” he continued.

“I would imagine from when they released the statement that he’s joining he’s been working on players that he would like to bring in and I’m sure a lot of the deals will be quite close.

“So we will see how soon he gets that done in the summer and then obviously back for pre-season and seeing how the new style of play evolves.”