Pep Guardiola gives talk of a clean sweep the brush-off

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has dismissed talk of the quadruple as a fairytale.

City booked an FA Cup fifth round trip to Swansea after avoiding a massive upset at Cheltenham with a 3-1 comeback win on Saturday.

They are also second in the Premier League, play Borussia Monchengladbach in the last 16 of the Champions League next month and face Tottenham in the Carabao Cup final in April.

But Guardiola insisted any suggestion of a clean sweep this season is fanciful.

“The target is Big Sam, West Brom, the other is a fairytale – 99.9 per cent never be accomplished,” he said, ahead of Tuesday’s trip to The Hawthorns.

“My advice is that you don’t do these kind of questions to the managers as it’s unrealistic.”

Phil Foden, Gabriel Jesus and Ferran Torres scored in the final 10 minutes at Cheltenham to cancel out Alfie May’s shock opener.

Guardiola gave Eric Garcia his first start for more than a month with the defender’s future increasingly likely to be away from the Etihad.

He is in the final year of his contract and has been heavily linked with a return to boyhood club Barcelona.

Guardiola said: “I’m pretty sure he’s going to leave at the end of the season. Now, in this transfer window, it will depend on the clubs. We’ll see until the end of the transfer window.”

City’s injury crisis is also easing after Aymeric Laporte shook off a hamstring injury to make his first appearance since before Christmas while Torres has  recovered from coronavirus.

“Two important players are back. We were unlucky that we were without Eric, Aymer, Nathan (Ake), we had just two centre-backs,” said Guardiola.

“We survived this period, 10 wins in a row, It’s important to have Ferran, Eric and Nathan because we’ll need everyone.

“It’s important they played well, it’s not easy after a long time out to come and play like that – it’s important.”