Guardiola couldn’t have done what Klopp has with same starting point, says Collymore

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What Pep Guardiola has achieved at Manchester City is clearly unbelievable, but he’s done it on the back of taking over a side that was already jam-packed with world-class players (Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Vincent Kompany) and then been able to spend more money than any team in football history to bolster it.

We’re not denying his 100-point season wasn’t special and that his current team is not capable of brilliance and beautiful to watch – but we’re not sure if his achievements are tantamount to Jurgen Klopp’s with Liverpool.

The German has secured the Premier League title and also has a Champions League to boot – unlike Pep who has never got past the quarterfinals with City at the time of writing – although they do have a chance to win the behind-closed-doors version of the competition in August.

Stan Collymore agrees with us, and thinks that the manner in which Klopp has transformed the entire club without a vast spend is special.

Collymore told The Mirror: “What Klopp has done in such a short space of time at Liverpool is incredible.

“In the likes of Mo Salah, Bobby Firmino and Sadio Mane, he has turned world-class players into ­absolute machines, and in Virgil van Dijk you’re talking about the best central defender in the world.

“He has transformed Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson – one homegrown kid and one £8 million ‘steady Eddie’ signing – into arguably the best full-backs in the world.

“There have been times Liverpool fans have felt sorry for themselves, times when excuses were made about why they weren’t winning titles, times when the buying and selling was poor.

“There have been times when you looked at some of the Liverpool sides and thought, ‘Will they ever get back to a position to compete again?’.

“Klopp has ended all that.

“I’m not convinced Guardiola could have done what Klopp has done if things were the other way round.

“I still want to doff my cap to Guardiola and City because it has been a cracking effort from them again this season.

“They have been an admirable foe and it’s not easy to go again after back-to-back title wins in which you have amassed 100 and then 98 points.

“But to the victor the spoils and they are deservedly Liverpool’s this time.”

Pep has one more year left on his City contract and really, we’d like to see him move on – as we think there’ll be a difficult job for whoever replaces him.

We think much of that depends on whether the club’s UEFA ban is upheld, which we’ll find out about in the coming weeks.

If City are indeed banned from the Champions League for two years, how can the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling stay?

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