Manchester City owners targeting the treble next season

31 May 2017 15:24

Manchester City's owners have set manager Pep Guardiola the challenge of winning the treble.

Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, even suggested the ambition of the club meant the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss should be looking at an unprecedented quadruple.

Guardiola endured his first season without a trophy in his debut campaign at City having previously won 21 titles in seven years as a manager.

He has already set about changing that by recruiting Monaco playmaker Bernardo Silva with Benfica goalkeeper Ederson on the verge of completing his move - at a combined cost of £75million - as he knows despite his own impressive reputation, owner Sheikh Mansour has lofty ambitions.

"We will try to win the Premier League and the Champions League and that remains our objective," Khaldoon told mancity.com.

"It excites me trying to win the Champions League and winning the Champions League.

"That ambition of winning the Champions League and hopefully doing it, that dream excites me very day and knowing we can do it.

"The dream of doing the Treble, yes. I want to do the treble, or else let's go for the quadruple! Why not?

"We should have that aspiration. I have it, no doubt. Sheikh Mansour drives me for it every day, but you look at the organisation you see it in Pep's eyes in everybody within our group.

"Pep wants to win it all and that's what I love most about him because that's how I feel, we want to win it all.

"We might not be able to achieve it, but I can assure you, we're going to try to do that."

Despite the disappointment of finishing third in the Premier League and not winning any trophies, Khaldoon insists everything is in place to deliver long-term success at the club.

City are backing Guardiola in the transfer market and that should make a significant difference when the new season begins in August.

"We're on the right track," added the chairman.

"We have a great manager, we're all working behind him, supporting him.

"We are going to do our work this summer. The trajectory is right and I'm very optimistic.

"Next year is going to be a massive year for us. Expectations are high, ambitions are high.

"I have a lot of hope that we're going to come back next season very strong and I hope we can deliver to our fans an incredible season next year."

Source: PA