London, Feb 2 (IANS) French football great Thierry Henry believes English football club Manchester City will have a great chance of winning the Champions League under incoming manager Pep Guardiola.
The English club on Monday confirmed that outgoing Bayern Munich coach Guardiola will succeed current boss Manuel Pellegrini when the Chilean’s contract expires this summer.
Henry, who played under Guardiola during his time at Barcelona, thinks the 45-year-old will bring the same type of success to the Etihad as he did during his four years in charge of his hometown club.
Guardiola, who will join City on a three-year deal, won Europe’s premier club competition on two occasions while manager of Barcelona.
“People always said it was an easy job at Barcelona, it wasn’t an easy job at Barcelona, trust me. After my first season (the season before Guardiola took charge), it was very difficult, the fans were really unhappy because we did not win everything,” Henry was quoted as saying by Sky Sports on Tuesday.
“But he was from there and people were patient with him. But I can assure you that what he brought was outstanding. Now to compare the two teams – he is going to come to a team that can play already with players that have won stuff with experience,” the former Arsenal striker said.
Guardiola will not be afraid to give youth a chance when he takes over at City, as he did at both the Nou Camp and more recently the Allianz Arena, Henry added.
“At my time at Barca, he put on the field through the ranks of the youth team the likes of Pedro and (Sergio) Busquets. Bojan was already there, also Jeffren – and I am not going to name all of them as it is a long list,” the Barcelona forward said.
“He did the same with Bayern Munich and I would like to think that obviously he is going to bring some big names, because he has the resources,” Henry said.
