Pep Guardiola

Patricho said:

What are you on about? The general consensus in the German media, among pundits and fans is that Guardiola's departure is a big loss for Bayern and the Bundesliga on the whole. Despite the disappointing results against Real and Barca in the last two years, Guardiola has arguably been the best thing that happened to German football for a long time. He was the most sought after coach and could have picked any club in the world, much like he will after his tenure at Bayern. He will always be appreciated for what he's done at Bayern regardless of whether we will win the Champions League this season or not.

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Then you're conveniently ignoring how many attacks he's been on the receiving end by that very same media and former Bayern players...Otherwise, why would Sammer could out in defense of Pep eh?

Bojan said:

Really? Puyol, Xavi say hello. Frank even who stayed here longer than pep.

And btw. Pep left Barca 3 years ago. Let's not pretend he's still coaching Barca.

As far as I'm concerened any team he coaches can fail miserably because it's only rivaling Barca.

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No one. No one was born & bred Catalan, became ballboy for the club, went to La Masia, became a 19 year old 1st teamer hand picked by the godfather of Barcelona football in Cruyff, won a CL as a player, Captained the team, became an idol for Cesc, Xavi, Iniesta, Thiago, Busquets et al, became coach of the youth team and had them jump 2 classes of obscurity to rejuvenate the club before revolutionizing the club & world football when he coached a team in utter disarray and won every competition there was to win and which no one has ever replicated. His success & contributions continue to live on after him.

So no, there is no one who is more Barcelona than Pep Guardiola. It's the very fickle & selfish nature of human beings now to knock or diminish the contributions of predecessors when they move on. But every member in this forum, myself included, should be embarrassed to ever question that - makes doing that incomprehensible and spoiled as fans. Moreover, you won't find one negative syllable uttered when discussing Pep by any of the club legends you mentioned much less Lucho, even they know what a god he is to Barcelona.

And no, it doesn't mean any us should be rooting on the teams he coached but perhaps show more respect that he is sharing his brilliance with other clubs and continuing to impact the game while learning about other cultures, leagues, players, clubs etc. before finally & inevitably returning home. As Pep not long ago reminded us "When people ask me why I love Barça, I tell them it's like asking me why I love my parents." Pep was born Barça

How will you spin it when he comes back? Will you welcome him back with open arms or still take digs because of how the current board tried to tarnish his legacy while they eroded so many of the other pillars of Mes que en club. Looking at the decimation of La Masia alone in such a short time is simply one.

Much to much said against him. I am certain he has faults like all of us as he is not infallible but if you are a fan of the club, no one deserves more praise than someone who's contributed as much as Pep to this club. And don't kid yourself, this historic trident is largely responsible for our current success along with Lucho's intensity but will always be inexstricably linked to what Guardiola started as he got this club winning, believing and hungry to dominate. That's the true legacy of the greatest champions, they live on even after they are gone.

Xavi agrees: 'He doesn't give himself a minute's rest. He's pig-headed, football is his everything and he puts so much intensity into everything. Pep's almost got a sickness for football.'

Guardiola's father, Valenti, a bricklayer, offers this: 'He is much more intense than he was as a player. Pep lives Barca 24 hours a day. It's too much. His mother suffers for it. We worry because he takes it all so much to heart, but that's the way he is.'


Capello who briefly coached him at Roma: 'He's one of the few intellectuals I have come across in a dressing room, intellectual in the sense he thinks about a lot of things. A lot about football, of course, but also about literature and other cultural things.
'At his peak, Guardiola was one of the quickest thinkers on the field. He was a true leader. He was calm, always had the right words at the appropriate moment. 'There are a lot of players who talk a lot and say nothing. Guardiola would find the right things to say.'


Messi: “Pep immediately transmitted an enormous amount of pride in our work, ambition and hunger. He won our confidence from the first day because we could see that things were being done correctly and then when results started to flow the confidence grew with them.”


Pep in an article in 2000: 'I arrived to try to change the world. Now all I hope for is that the world will not change me".'

'There is a special relationship between Catalans and this team we call Barça. Catalonia was repressed for many years, culturally and in the use of its own language. That makes you love these things more and want to defend them at the national and international level.'

You find quotes and praise him for his work with Barca which noone disputes.

You are stuck in 2011 though and haven't moved on eventhough pep did. You love him for what he was as Barca coach but he's not coaching Barca anymore. Let that sink in for a while. And you don't know him as a person so, really, don't start a cult yet.

Bojan said:

You find quotes and praise him for his work with Barca which noone disputes.

You are stuck in 2011 though and haven't moved on eventhough pep did. You love him for what he was as Barca coach but he's not coaching Barca anymore. Let that sink in for a while. And you don't know him as a person so, really, don't start a cult yet.

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We celebrate many past greats of Barcelona history including Ronaldinho & Cruyff yet Pep deserves scorn because he's been gone since 2012?...Pep's influence continues even if you want to try & deny it. Love fades then for you?

Wouldn't change the premise of my post and that is that no one and I mean no one can claim to be more Blaugrana than Pep so to bin him, you're binning the club. You yourself Bojan have given quite a bit to the club even soley based on this forum but I am sure you contribute in many other ways - yet imagine Guardiola who no one has contributed more to the club than and many, including yourself, freely are critical of him? Should be painful once that sinks in for you and if it doesn't, it should be

[MENTION=15262]serghei[/MENTION] I agree with what you are saying. For me if he does all you have mentioned then my perception of Guardiola in the Barca family will still be exceptionally high. I liked what [MENTION=711]FCBarca[/MENTION] said. In particularly Guardiola's on going influence.

I also want to say (unless it's off topic) that what I said in the confessions forum had nothing to do with Guardiola. I just pleased with Bayern getting knockout of the Champions League in 2014.

FCBarca said:

Then you're conveniently ignoring how many attacks he's been on the receiving end by that very same media and former Bayern players...Otherwise, why would Sammer could out in defense of Pep eh?

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It's Sammer we're talking about. He is known for being over sensitive and overprotective and lashes out at anyone who dares to criticize Bayern. He would have ranted against the media if it was only a single goal(dot)com article attacking Pep. And yes, we have a bunch of ex players and coaches (Hitzfeld, Beckenbauer, Magath, Scholl, Effenberg etc.) that like to talk. Nothing new here. The great majority knows and appreciates Pep's unique contributions at Bayern.

That's simply not true. I know many Bayern fans from München and all of them say they are sick of pep.

And I didn't know the World needs to conform to pep. In Spain it was also about media, now German media are to blame too, and I already read lamentations about English media and how they are going to bother pep.
You do know he picked and picks his own jobs and is fully aware where he's going?

So now you're extolling the virtues of media & gotchya journalism because some pundits haven't had the access they would've liked with Guardiola?

Same can be said about his employers, he doesn't give 1v1 interviews and isn't going to play the media game most of us despise anyway...To hire him and expect him to change is naive at the very least. The beauty of Pep is precisely that he isn't a conformist, hiring him and failing to appreciate/respect that is folly

Bojan said:

That's simply not true. I know many Bayern fans from München and all of them say they are sick of pep.

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I won't go into a contest of who knows more Bayern fans, but I got the feeling that most of them are disappointed by his departure. But unless we have empirical data from interviews with a representative sample, we will never get to the "truth".

Bojan said:

That's simply not true. I know many Bayern fans from München and all of them say they are sick of pep.

And I didn't know the World needs to conform to pep. In Spain it was also about media, now German media are to blame too, and I already read lamentations about English media and how they are going to bother pep.
You do know he picked and picks his own jobs and is fully aware where he's going?

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Let's be objective - Pep and Pep's work has positive and negative sides - and therefore it is just normal that there are people that see him critical.

barca fans were butthurt when guardiola left, with reasons ranging to saint pep was sick of the evil board to evil pep left the ship because it was going down.

I guess it will be the same with bayern fans, although the CL will be very important in determining which way it goes.

TornAndFrayed said:

barca fans were butthurt when guardiola left, with reasons ranging to saint pep was sick of the evil board to evil pep left the ship because it was going down.

I guess it will be the same with Pep, although the CL will be very important in determining which way it goes.

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God forbid Pep ever wins a CL with another team, the hate will explode

Only if he directly knocks us out
Some would've preferred he stayed another 25 years at barça, or resume coaching in the tercera just for kicks... Pep is an aesthete and wants to coach teams that have the necessary qualities to implement his vision.

Aesthete is a new word for taking over the strongest and richest club in country, I suppose.
Still better than calling it a big challenge as we've read in this thread previously.

There's no question that Pep is an aesthete and his time and struggles at bayern pretty much proved it. There were other ways for this bayern to play. He made it play his way.