For four years, Pep Guardiola led Barça to win every possible title. His team's football exceeded all expectations and was considered one of the best of all time. Now, the Negreira case, for which Barça is accused after paying large amounts of money to the member of the Referees Committee, could call into question the achievements achieved by that and other Barça teams. Pep Guardiola, now Manchester City coach, has spoken about this and has assured that "when Barça won, they did it because they were much better."
"Wait, wait seated," Guardiola recommends to the journalist to begin. "It happens to Barça like City when everyone accused us of doing things wrong (skipping financial fair play)." "Let the judicial process take its course," he said.
Then he got into the matter. He first stated that there was no evidence of the purchase of openers. "As I have heard, I have not read much because I am outside of all this, but I have not seen Barcelona paying referees to make a profit.
I haven't seen it, that's why I prefer to wait before giving an opinion, because now Barcelona has to defend itself, they will do it and we'll see," he said.
And then he did defend his time as the club's coach and the work ethic he performs there. "What I am sure of is that whatever Barcelona has won, and to win in Spain you have to do much better than the other teams, it is because it was better than its rivals. I am convinced of that because I was there," he explained.
And it ended in a forceful way. "When we won it was because we were much better than our rivals. When they are not, they do not win and lose. But now the judges will decide what really happened," he concluded. Premier League leaders Manchester City were eliminated from the Cup this week at the hands of Newcastle United.
