For much of his time leading Manchester City, Pep Guardiola has leaned on the club’s infancy in the Champions League as reason why it should come as no surprise that they have not won it on his watch.
There are institutions with storied histories in the competition, their traditions steeped in European football. That City possessed neither is something he has often reiterated.
You can debate the relative merits of that argument in the context of City’s catapulting up to the elite over the past decade, and many do. But the events of last season mean expectations rise and are higher now than they have ever been — even without a new striker.