'ANY OTHER CLUB WOULD SACK ME...

PEP GUARDIOLA believes that if he had been at any other big club he would have been sacked.

- SIMON MULLOCK

In the toughest season of his coaching career, the Manchester City boss is desperate to repay the Etihad's chiefs for handing him a new two-year contract rather than giving him the boot.

But even that doesn't mean he'll be around long enough to see through the sort of major rebuild that began last month with a £170million transfer splash that brought in four new faces.

City face table-topping Liverpool today, and Guardiola said: "I have a contract for two more years, so I don't have to make compliments [about City's executives] - but I need to do it.

"I have not been sacked for the results this season because the results in the past have been extraordinary.