Pep Guardiola dismissed the possibility of Manchester City winning a treble this season as "fairy tales" as he hailed Scott Carson as an inspiration to his young stars.
Veteran former England goalkeeper Carson made just his second appearance in almost three years for City as he came off the bench against Sporting CP in the Champions League on Wednesday.
City's goalless draw completed a 5-0 aggregate win over the Portuguese giants after the thumping win in Lisbon three weeks earlier, and that has only served to ramp up talk of a possible sweep of the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League titles.
Leading the English top flight and through to quarter-finals in the two knockout competitions, it is a rosy picture for City with three shots at silverware remaining.
Asked about that prospect in a news conference on Thursday, Guardiola said: "It doesn't motivate me, absolutely zero, lower than zero. It is fairy tales.
"The reality is tougher than you suggest with this kind of things. You should understand sport at a high level is so competitive, so difficult.
"What I'm happy with is we are in the quarter-finals, the best eight teams in Europe. It will be so tough, the opponent we are going to face, and I guess for the opponent it will be tough to face us.
"Step-by-step, we now recover and increase and improve our level and at the end, we will see."
Guardiola handed Champions League debuts to teenagers CJ Egan-Riley, James McAtee and Luke Mbete, while Fernandinho made his 100th appearance in the competition, the fourth Brazilian to reach that mark, following in the footsteps of Roberto Carlos (120), Dani Alves (111) and Marcelo (101).
The youngsters that City hope to keep bringing through from their academy, in the manner that Guardiola's former club Barcelona have cultivated youth talent down the years, have plenty of international stars to admire.
Guardiola made a point that 36-year-old Carson should be the player they watch, to learn how he values every moment of his City career.
"One of the best advice I could give to young players is stay around Scott Carson as much as possible in the locker room and on the pitch," Guardiola said.
"It's the best advice they can get, the best learnings they can get. You have to be there to know him. He's experienced enough, he lived many, many things."
Carson's surprise and popular cameo against Sporting gave him just a second appearance in the Champions League, a full 16 years and 338 days after he played for Liverpool against Juventus as a 19-year-old. That made it the largest gap between appearances for any player in the competition's history, and Carson pulled off a fine stop to stave off a possible home defeat.
"He's at the end of his career, so every second he's training and every minute he gets on the pitch and off the field in the locker room, he values it," Guardiola said.
"It's like young actors need to be with old actors on the set. They are wiser, and they have the values in the football profession."
We have made some mistakes – Andrea Radrizzani sorry after Leeds’ relegation
Leeds chairman Andrea Radrizzani has apologised to the club’s fans following relegation from the Premier League.
In a personal statement posted on Twitter, Radrizzani admitted the board of directors had made mistakes and hoped to make some “key appointments in different areas of the club”.
But the 48-year-old Italian, who is part of a consortium that has completed a takeover of Sampdoria, made no mention of a possible change of ownership at Leeds.
Radrizzani said: “The last few days have been very difficult for everyone associated with Leeds United.
“I find it very hard to find the right words to say, other than to apologise to all of our fans for the club’s relegation. I am sincerely sorry for how this season has unfolded.
“We have made significant investments to try to keep Leeds United in the Premier League, but in working hard to improve the club, we have also obviously made some mistakes.
“We are reflecting on the decisions that we have taken to ensure we learn the lessons to improve our club and make progress in the future.
“Leeds supporters deserve more than this. You understand the journey on which we have embarked, and I hope that once the anger and disappointment has subsided you will see that we can come back stronger.”
Radrizzani’s company Aser Group, in partnership with finance company Gestio Capital, announced on Tuesday night that they had concluded a deal to save financially-stricken Sampdoria, recently relegated to Serie B.
It had been expected that that deal would lead to Radrizzani selling his 56 per cent stake in Leeds to American co-owners 49ers Enterprises.
The financial arm of NFL franchise the San Francisco 49ers increased its stake in Leeds to 44 per cent at the end of 2021 with a deal in place to buy Radrizzani’s stake and take full control before January 2024.
But that deal was contingent on Leeds remaining in the Premier League and it would appear Radrizzani is now intent on leading them back to the top flight.
“We have invested heavily in Leeds United since 2017 and worked hard to get back to where the club deserves to be,” he added.
“With the support of our partners, we can continue that journey to bounce back.
“I am proud of the progress we have made in recent years. We have become a club that can attract exciting players, we are strong commercially, we have seen improvements to the academy, introduced a women’s side and so much more.
“In many ways the club has been transformed and we are committed and determined to continue on this journey.
“I do not like to make false promises, there is still a lot of work to do and change is needed.
“We need a clear strategy to continue our vision for the club and work is underway to produce this, which we hope will be reflected in some key appointments in different areas of the club. We will keep you all updated throughout the process.”
Leeds’ three-year stay in the Premier League ended last Sunday when they lost 4-1 at home to Tottenham.
The Yorkshire club have employed three managers during a disastrous campaign, sacking Jesse Marsch in February and then Javi Gracia earlier this month before appointing Sam Allardyce for the last four games.
Tom Lockyer to leave hospital on Thursday and return for pre-season training
Luton have confirmed that captain Tom Lockyer will leave hospital on Thursday and is set to be available for pre-season training.
The 28-year-old fell to the floor during their Sky Bet Championship play-off final against Coventry on Saturday and was taken to hospital after being carried off the pitch on a stretcher.
Lockyer has since undergone tests at the Cavendish Clinic in London and the club confirmed he will be able to join their preparations for Premier League football next season.
A statement on the Luton website said: “The Welsh international has completed all the necessary medical tests and observations to be allowed home for a period of rest before the start of pre-season training, which he will be fit to take part in.
“We would like to thank everyone for their messages of love and support for Locks, who has had a season to remember and proudly led the team out on Saturday, with his team-mates completing the job for him.
“We can’t wait to see you back home at the Kenny with that trophy in your hands, Locks!”
Saturday’s final went to penalties after Jordan Clark’s opener was cancelled out by Gustavo Hamer to finish 1-1 after extra time, but the Hatters secured top-flight football with a 6-5 victory on penalties.
Luton players held up Lockyer’s shirt throughout their celebrations and the captain posted an update on Instagram after the game.
He said: “Well not quite where I thought I’d be celebrating at the final whistle!
“I would just like to say a massive thank you to the amazing physios and doctors at Luton and Wembley for the swift and thorough response.
“A much scarier moment for everyone else than myself I am sure!
“Commiserations to Coventry a fantastic opponent over 3 games which had to be decided by penalties.
“I am currently in hospital under precaution and will stay here overnight for further tests in the morning.
“I am feeling very much myself, helped by the way the lads left it all out on pitch! It’s such an honour to be part of this team.. Premier League baby.”
We’ve got to believe we can pull off a miracle – Inverness captain Sean Welsh
Captain Sean Welsh has told his Inverness team-mates they have to believe they can pull off “a miracle” in what will be the biggest game of his career this Saturday.
The cinch Championship side are big underdogs for their Scottish Cup final showdown with Celtic, who are bidding to complete a domestic treble.
Welsh knows it will take a huge effort to pull off an upset at Hampden but the 33-year-old is adamant his team have a chance.
“It ranks at the very top for me,” said the former Partick Thistle and Falkirk midfielder when asked about the size of the game in the context of his career.
“It’s not very often you get to play on an occasion like this, especially at my age getting to the latter stages of my career. I am thoroughly looking forward to it.
“We’ve got to believe, I’ve said that to the lads all week. We’ve got to believe we can pull off a miracle.
“We don’t just want to go there for a day out and get caught up in the occasion.
“We know it’s a massive challenge in front of us, but we’ve got to have belief in ourselves.
“We know we have a good group and we know we are going to be up against it at times in the game but we’ve got to stick together and have that belief that we can do it.”
Celtic won only two of their closing six Premiership matches as they had the title wrapped up with time to spare, but Welsh dismissed any notion that his team can draw encouragement from the champions’ recent form dip.
“I don’t think you can look too much into that,” he added.
“They wrapped up the title early doors and then had a few results they probably weren’t happy with but you saw at the weekend (when they beat Aberdeen 5-0) they can turn it on when they need to. I’m sure they’ll be right up for this.
“It’s not going to make much difference to us, we know how hard the challenge is going to be.”
Inverness will have gone more than four weeks without a competitive game by the time they run out at Hampden on Saturday.
Although Welsh admits it is “not ideal” in terms of maintaining match sharpness, he feels the month-long break has at least allowed them to banish any lingering disappointment after they lost to Ayr in their final Championship fixture and missed out on the play-offs.
“It was good to get some time to get over what happened in the last game of the season,” he said.
“That was a difficult night and we were all very disappointed to miss out on the play-offs so the time away was good for us to clear our minds and get over it.
“We didn’t want that lingering going into this massive game.
“We’ve come back in refreshed and excited and we’re looking forward to it.”
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