The Catalan is set to lose his greatest rival when the Liverpool boss steps down, but unlike the German, he is still full of energy

Pep Guardiola could have shied away from discussing Jurgen Klopp's departure from Liverpool immediately after Manchester City's FA Cup win over Tottenham. Ange Postecoglou was not interested and said it was not the time. But when the City boss was asked how he felt about the news that had shaken the football world earlier that day, he broke into a smile.

"I will sleep better," was his first reaction. "The days before playing against Liverpool were almost a nightmare. Of course he will be missed. I was shocked, like everyone, to the news. I felt a part of Man City would be lost. We cannot define our period here together without him and Liverpool – it is impossible."

The admiration Guardiola has for Klopp was plain to see and touching. Behind City's fierce rivalry with Liverpool there has been a deep level of mutual respect for how far the two teams have pushed each other. City may have edged Liverpool to two titles, but the Merseysiders have had the ride of their lives and boast more wins in the fixture. They also lifted a first Premier League title in 30 years and knocked their new-found foes out of the FA Cup semi-finals and Champions League quarter-finals.

The Premier League will not be the same without Klopp and nor will Guardiola, who has admitted that the German has spurred him on to be an even better coach. But don't expect the Catalan to be following his old adversary out the door anytime soon.

While Guardiola had every sympathy for the draining impact the game has come to have on Klopp, he is not feeling the same way about his own position at City, where everything is in place for him and his team to continue dominating English and world football.

Getty Perfect structure around him

Even though Guardiola and Klopp's paths have crossed many times, they have been on very different journeys with their clubs. Before Klopp arrived at Liverpool, the Reds were at best a sleeping giant and at worst a laughing stock. In the 25 years between Liverpool's last title win in 1990 and Klopp's arrival at Anfield, the team had mounted just two credible challenges for the English crown, in 2009 and 2014.

Though they had won the Champions League in 2005 and reached the final in 2007, they had experienced a big drop-off in Europe and had only been in Europe's elite competition once in the previous six years. Klopp's arrival changed everything, turning Liverpool into a European powerhouse and the only team who could rival City domestically.

Contrast the chaos at Liverpool with the relatively stable club Guardiola inherited in 2016; City had won two of the previous five Premier League titles and had just reached the Champions League semis.

The team had certainly become demotivated under Manuel Pellegrini but the structures that have made City so formidable under Guardiola were already in place. They already had a world-class training facility and a modernised, expanded stadium, while chief executive Ferran Soriano and sporting director Txiki Begiristain were also in situ.

AdvertisementGetty ImagesWorld-class squad

Guardiola has unquestionably taken City to new heights and achieved a level of consistency and excellence his predecessors Pellegrini and Roberto Mancini could not, but a lot of the hard work had already been done before he arrived. And many of City's previous appointments at boardroom level were made with the long-term vision of hiring Guardiola.

The club had, in essence, been working for him long before he had arrived. And, bar a few personnel changes, the same structure remains. And the squad, which Guardiola has had a huge say in constructing, has gotten even better.

The institutional stability and world-class playing staff that Guardiola has benefitted from meant he was able to politely brush aside suggestions that Manchester United poaching chief football officer Omar Berrada to be their new chief executive would lead to a shift in the balance of power in Manchester.

"His knowledge goes to United but Kevin De Bruyne is still in Man City, Erling Haaland will play here so in the end it’s not as simple as that," Guardiola said. "Maybe United thinks with this person everything is going to change – congratulations. I don’t know if this is going to happen. We will be well prepared, we will adapt and adjust and move forward."

Getty ImagesMoney is no object

Guardiola was essentially saying that it will take a lot more than an astute CEO to fix the entrenched problems at United and a lot more to destabilise City. And looking at how the club has gone from strength to strength in every aspect since being taken over by Sheikh Mansour in 2008, it is hard to argue with him.

City's financial muscle due to their backing from Abu Dhabi is a big reason for that stability, of course. Not only is Guardiola assured of a massive salary and a contract he can effectively decide the length of, he knows his club will rarely struggle to afford a player he really wants.

That does not mean City pay silly money for transfer targets and they have been more than happy to turn away from deals they didn't fancy, such as for Declan Rice, Harry Maguire and Alexis Sanchez. But when Guardiola really wants a player, as with Haaland, he knows the club will back him.

Klopp, however, could not say the same and he has privately had big disagreements with Liverpool's hierarchy over a lack of transfer funds. Indeed, two of the Reds' biggest signings of the Klopp era, Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk, were only made possible due to them selling Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for a staggering £142 million ($180m).

City players, unless they are past their prime such as Riyad Mahrez and Aymeric Laporte, are highly unlikely to want to leave the club for financial reasons. The only thing drawing players away from the Etihad Stadium is a lack of playing time (see Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Cole Palmer) or being fed up with the city of Manchester and its often grim weather, as was the case with Ilkay Gundogan.

Getty No political wrangling to worry about

There is another reason why Guardiola feels so secure and happy at City in ways he did not at Bayern Munich and Barcelona. Both sides are giants in their own lands and, at least when Guardiola was there, never lacked for money. But due to their size, history and prestige, the pressure can become unbearable.

Barcelona has the infamous 'entorno', a vast array of influential figures constantly stabbing each other in the back for political motives. Guardiola had bitter disagreements with Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu during his time at Barca and the scars ran so deep that years after leaving the club he lashed out at his old employers when visiting the Camp Nou with City in 2016.

Guardiola mentioned his time at Barca when asked if he sympathised with Klopp for running out of energy. He said: "I don't want to compare with him but in Barcelona I had that feeling to reflect or analyse and go for another one and I said 'please, leave me alone.' Maybe that is the feeling that Jurgen felt."

Xavi Hernandez's decision to step down as Barca coach at the end of the season was another reminder of how difficult it is to survive a long time at Camp Nou, even if you are a legendary ex-player.

Bayern might not be as toxic a place as Barca but the serial-winning Bavarians have a long-running list of former players and directors who wield a lot of influence and are never shy of mouthing off to their friends in the media if they disagree with a coach's decision. Guardiola did not take kindly to getting scathing criticism from the likes of Lothar Matthaus and Matthias Sammer while he was in Munich.