Man City 2-1 Brentford: Pep Guardiola says Thomas Frank will manage big club

Frank was heavily linked with Manchester United before and after last season’s FA Cup final as the Old Trafford club delayed making a decision around the future of Erik ten Hag.

Told of Guardiola’s post-match comments when he arrived to conduct his own media conference a few minutes later, Frank thanked the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach for the praise, but skirted round the issue of moving clubs.

“First, thank you for that, Pep – it is always nice,” he said. “There are a lot of reasons why I admire Pep. He always shows class and did it when we beat them here last time, almost 50 games ago.

“I am very happy at Brentford but maybe one day I will try something new.”

Frank was proud of his side’s performance but agreed they had failed to capitalise on their dominance immediately after Wissa’s goal, although he felt Kevin de Bruyne’s decision to waste time by taking the ball to the corner in stoppage time was a tribute to the way his side had played.

“If they do that at the Etihad against Brentford, we have probably done something well,” he said.

“If Manchester City are the best team in the world, for 25 minutes we were world class. I am 50/50 between being frustrated at not getting anything out of the game after such a good performance, and being really proud of the way we played.”