Pep Guardiola told Sky Sports of their "dream" of winning the Champions League with Manchester City - just days before City were hit with a two-season ban from European football.
Guardiola had already publicly admitted he would be judged "a failure" at the Etihad if he failed to make the club European champions for the first time.
And talking to Sky Sports ahead of their later-postponed game with West Ham at the start of February, Guardiola opened up on his dreams of lifting the trophy he has already won twice as a manager - although not since 2011.
City face Real Madrid in the last sixteen of this year's Champions League, with the first leg at the Bernabeu on February 26, but the tie will now go ahead against the backdrop of the club's impending suspension for breaching UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations.
"I want to win the Champions League, I dream," said Guardiola earlier this month. "I will enjoy preparing the games against Madrid, to see what we can do, and this process, the two weeks before will be the happiest moments for me to work out what we can do to get them.
"I know that [the club] want to do it, they tell me, I accept it, I live with that, it's happened, but the important thing is to be proud of the way your team play and try to do your best. We give a bad message for the new generation for our kids, to just count the winner, the trophies.
"But if we don't beat them, can the chairman say it's not good enough, we didn't win the Champions League, I'm going to sack you? Okay, it was a pleasure. I don't know if he'll say that, it's happened many times. He might say we did well, we can improve, and since day one of me arriving here that's what I got from this club.
"I want to improve, of course. I want to try, but I cannot assure you that every season we will win the domestic title, the Champions League - I would love it, but I'm not good enough."
Man City say they are "disappointed but not surprised" by their ban, describing the process as "prejudicial", and will take the case to Court of Arbitration for Sport.
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Tell me a manager who doesn't want to win CL? Just one. Will you ever get tired of targeting Pep? I always see negative articles about Pep. The choice of pic you publish is nothing sort of horrendous. I don't see you doing the same with anyone else with such regularity. This is disgusting to say the least.