Pep Guardiola might have won two Champions Leagues with Barcelona, but he may have already surpassed that with one early achievement at Manchester City.
Turning Raheem Sterling back into a proper footballer takes some doing, and it’s only going to boost Guardiola’s credentials even further.
After the summer that the England international had at Euro 2016, and the season he had at City under Manuel Pellegrini, the attacker’s confidence looked completely shot.
This season, it’s a completely different story, and he has already scored two and assisted one in the Premier League.
Unsurprisingly, the player thinks recent criticism was “unfair”, telling the Mirror that he himself has made one change that has improved his confidence. Perhaps it’s not all down to Guardiola after all.
“I got a lot of criticism last season, which I thought was a bit unfair,” he said.
“Now I block that out and simply play football. That’s it. I never listen to that.
“Before, every time you’d take a stroll, you’d be on your phone, on an app, being nosy to see what people are saying when you see your name.
“Now I don’t pay it any attention. I simply leave it alone.”
In truth, the £49million man deserved much of the flak he was getting, even if he is still a young player who still has plenty of time to develop.
Under Guardiola, he finally has a chance to live up to that huge price tag that City paid Liverpool for him, and what is most impressive is that he’s turned his mentality around on his own.
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