When he let go of Gundogan and Pep brought in Kovacic then he realised that it could be fulfilled. The doubts will definitely be there but Pep will always give his best and there is no way he would have brought Kovavic without some consideration.
Kovacic played very well for Croatia in Euro 2020 and World Cup 2022 so he is a useful player and has good experience. He has different skills than Gundogan so Pep will use Kovacic with different roles than ones he assigned to Gundogan. It is interesting to see how Pep will put Kovacic into his squad in a new season. I guess Kovacic will seriously focus on defense and with Kovacic, Pep will allow Rodri to play more attacking.
If they do not ask too much from Kovacic, then who would be replacing the players they have lost this season? I mean Ilkay is gone, they need someone to play in his stead, and that means they expect the same thing from Kovacic, if not then someone else but who? We know someone must be replacing that position, so it is going to matter a lot.
City may not be as great as they have been so far and I keep saying this and nobody believes me, when the season starts and they start losing some games time to time people will realize that this was what I was talking about. I believe that we need to end up with a solution that should be a lot more important and permanent and they do not have that just yet, maybe they will get another player.