Broken, battered and bruised, but Pep deserves the chance to rebuild

SHOULD Pep Guardiola move over and make way now for someone else to rebuild Manchester City?

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These days, every time I see the bloke standing on the sidelines, I feel like I'm looking at a broken soul.

He looks tired and distracted like he's staring at a cryptic crossword for the first time and there's no one there to show him how to crack the code.

There are personal issues, too, and being goaded about them in the Bernabeu by Real Madrid supporters as his club exited the Champions League with a whimper must have been tough.

It's not enough that he has raised the bar to ridiculous levels and reinvented the game - setting a blueprint for how every team on the planet would like to play.

It's not enough that he has broken fresh ground in terms of the benchmarks he has set and turned City into an object of envy.

It's not enough that he has carried off titles and cups aplenty, made Wembley the club's second home and turned Manchester United into also-rans.

Sir Alex Ferguson was wrong. Noisy neighbours? They've become the neighbours from hell.