Pep Guardiola dismisses Manchester City 'quadruple' talk as 'fantasy'
Pep Guardiola has dismissed early talk of Manchester City winning the quadruple this season as “fantasy”.
City’s FA Cup campaign continues this weekend against Burnley at the Etihad, three days after confirming their place at Wembley for next month’s EFL Cup final.
A favourable round-of-16 tie against Schalke 04 awaits in the Champions League, while the reigning Premier League champions currently sit four points behind leaders Liverpool.
City are therefore the only English club with a realistic hope of winning four major trophies this year.
Guardiola, however, will not entertain talk of his side sweeping the board come the end of the season.
“We are able to try to win tomorrow, that’s all I can assure you,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Friday. “The other is fantasy.”
Guardiola fielded several academy players in City’s EFL Cup semi-final second leg against Burton Albion on Wednesday night.
Ian Carlo Poveda, Philippe Sandler and Felix Nmecha all played a part as City progressed by a 10-0 aggregate scoreline.
However, Guardiola has generally named strong line-ups in the cups during his time in England and ruled out the inclusion of any academy players against Burnley on Saturday.
“Always try to make a strong team,” Guardiola said. “It’s FA Cup against a Premier League team like Burnley so we are going to play with the best team we believe to win the game.
“[The young players] have to be prepared just in case, but except Vinny we now have everyone fit. Everybody can play. Tomorrow there will be no players from the academy.”
