Paul Lake Believes Guardiola’s New Deal Will Address Recent Difficulties

Former Manchester City player Paul Lake expressed his belief that Pep Guardiola is motivated to rectify recent difficulties and that his new contract will serve to “reassure” supporters. Lake, who played for the club’s senior team for a decade, discussed Guardiola’s situation during an appearance on BBC Radio Manchester’s Total Sport, stating: “For the fans, players and squad it’s really reassuring, but for a lot of us it settles the nerves. There’s a bit of nervousness around the form of late and the fact we haven’t overcome missing certain individuals mainly in the midfield areas.” He continued, “It calms the water to a degree, however the kind of person Pep is, the legacy he will be leaving Manchester City is probably not where he wants it to be.” Lake further elaborated, “This year facilitates players coming back, new players coming in to the environment and being given the chance to bed into the set up.” He added, “But it also allows Pep to leave in the way he wants to. There are frustrations, and I never thought I’d say it with the incredible squad we’ve got, that we’d miss one player as much as we have done. I think it’s highlighted the fact we need to get different players and build in a different way.” Lake concluded his remarks by stating, “There’s a lot of things that I think Pep will be excited about once he’s got the assurances. He’s got another season, and there are things that have jumped out over the last few weeks that have been the unknown for Pep – these are challenges he wants to put right.”