Manchester City

JamDav1982

Senior Member
Pep will stay and has always aimed to stay at City longer than Bayern or Barca as he sees it at the club to leave with his imprint and his legacy.

There is no real decent option away from City unless he stays in EPL. Maybe Arsenal or some other club down the line.
 

Andrew M

New member
Pep will stay and has always aimed to stay at City longer than Bayern or Barca as he sees it at the club to leave with his imprint and his legacy.

There is no real decent option away from City unless he stays in EPL. Maybe Arsenal or some other club down the line.

He'll see out his contract until 2021. Juve will do all they can to get him
 

gregorrin10

Senior Member
Pep will stay and has always aimed to stay at City longer than Bayern or Barca as he sees it at the club to leave with his imprint and his legacy.

There is no real decent option away from City unless he stays in EPL. Maybe Arsenal or some other club down the line.

You'd think that was you know, his home club Barca. :angry: I've love Pep but his post Barca jobs have proved he's basically the same as CR...go to the best club in the country or at least to the one with the most money, win something and proclaim yourself as taking on a great new challenge. Just as we'd joke about CR saying how going to Juve was a challenge, Pep came out and said the exact same thing, if he were to go to Juve next. That's 4 best leagues, but always gone to the best team with the most money. :rolleyes:
 
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JamDav1982

Senior Member
You'd think that was you know, his home club Barca. :angry: I've love Pep but his post Barca jobs have proved he's basically the same as CR...go to the best club in the country or at least to the one with the most money, win something and proclaim yourself as taking on a great new challenge. Just as we'd joke about CR saying how going to Juve was a challenge, Pep came out and said the exact same thing, if he were to go to Juve next. That's 4 best leagues, but always gone to the best team with the most money. :rolleyes:

Pep knows Cruyff is the one whose legacy is Barca even more so than him.

Not a big fan of Pep as a person but going a bit overboard to say always chosing best team with money. Barca were fucked before he took over and going nowhere.
 

gregorrin10

Senior Member
Pep knows Cruyff is the one whose legacy is Barca even more so than him.

Not a big fan of Pep as a person but going a bit overboard to say always chosing best team with money. Barca were fucked before he took over and going nowhere.

That was his first job though, he was lucky Laporta was president and that he decided to took a chance on him when no one else would. And much less no foreign club was ever gonna take a chance on him at that time, even if he did play some eye-catching football with the B team. But if for example someone like Bartomeu was president back then, Pep would've stayed the B team manager for another couple of years, then maybe some La Liga club like Betis would've offered him a chance to manage them, and he'd be on Setien's level today, achievements-wise. A good coach with a positive idea of his teams playing some great football, but not actually managing any big clubs (before taking over Barca in Setien's case obviously) and not winning a single trophy in his managerial career.

As for Pep, after Barca it was obvious with the legacy he created he was gonna have his pick of the bunch among the biggest clubs, and I understand wanting to try yourself in all 4 of the biggest leagues, but honestly he did choose the easiest way every time and still kinda failed (all his next teams were already a force to be reckoned with in their own leagues, but wanted to win the CL, and Pep just couldn't do it). If he were to go to Juve, that would be one more proof of him taking the easiest way possible. Why not take over someone like Milan or Napoli, where he would have total freedom and confidence to really build something special and actually stay there for the long haul. But it's pretty much clear that if he were ever to take on a job in Italy, it's gonna be Juve and no one else. Then the only thing left is to just wait for him to call going there a challenge like PR7 did.:lol:
 

Messi983

Senior Member
You'd think that was you know, his home club Barca. :angry: I've love Pep but his post Barca jobs have proved he's basically the same as CR...go to the best club in the country or at least to the one with the most money, win something and proclaim yourself as taking on a great new challenge. Just as we'd joke about CR saying how going to Juve was a challenge, Pep came out and said the exact same thing, if he were to go to Juve next. That's 4 best leagues, but always gone to the best team with the most money. :rolleyes:

Not a Pep fan boy but this is not exactly true.

1. Pep has build his Barça team. He was "given" a golden generation of La Masia but RM had more money then and at least as good if not a better team on paper. Remember we finished 18 points behind them a season before.

2. Bayern: sure, he went to the best team in BL but his goal was to win CL (which he failed to do). What made his job harder from the beggining was Heynckes winning a treble just before Pep took over. He didn't know this would happen though when he was announced in January 2013 (and he probably agreed to join Bayern already in summer 2012 before taking a sabatical year and there were even rumours he did that when he was still in his last season here) or maybe he would have second thoughts about joining Bayern. How can you improve (results-wise) a team that has just won a treble? IIRC Pep even admitted publicly he was supporting Dortmund to win that 2013 CL final so his job would be a bit easier.

3. City: in a season before Pep took over City almost missed on a CL spot (they've finished 4th with the same number of points than United and 15 points behind a champion Leicester). They've already had some players that become key in Pep's team but still needed to spend a lot of money for players who fit Pep's system. They've invested over 500m net in new player since 2016 though United is not far behind and we know how the results of both teams (in the league) were. What played in his favour was City's history and lower expectations (despite high investments) compared to Barça or Bayern. They've only won 4 league titles before Pep and he won them two consecutive ones for the first time in club history. So while fans were disappointed they didn't do more in the CL they were still happy with just winning the EPL. That's also one of the reasons why Pep feels more comfortable and happy in City and why he might stay there a year or two longer than in his previous clubs.

Now assuming Pep will go to Juve. He'll go back to those expectations he had here or in Bayern. After winning 8 consecutive scudettos Juve fans don't care about Serie A anymore (unless Inter/Lazio take the title away from them this season then they'll maybe want to win it more again next year), they want CL. So while Pep would go to the best team in the league his true competition would be other elite European clubs more than Serie A teams.

I know it will probably never happen but I think if Pep wants a serious challenge he should go to Bilbao (he was talking years ago he wants to coach them one day but it was probably just him being diplomatic) and try to make them a contender for La Liga title. This looks impossible on paper but even Valverde finished 4th with them a few years ago and now we'll soon have Barça entering post-Messi era and AM rebuilding after Simeone leaves. Valencia is not what they've used to be and other teams like Villarreal or Sevilla are also not consistent enough. So only RM looks like they have a bright future ahead but even they will have to move on from their old guard (Ramos, Modrić, Benz,...) eventually and we don't know if/how the younger players will do.

Bilbao have a very good academy for Pep to work with and develop and good enough finances they could steal a player or two away from Sociedad (Oyarzabal, Merino (still don't know why Bilbao didn't go more serious after him when he was available), Zubeldia, Zaldua and a very talented Barrenetxea) and could also bring back the likes of F.Llorente or Javi Martinez as a shorter-term solutions.
 
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The Observer

New member
Barca prior to 08/09 was not as much in trouble as is made out in hindsight to keep the narrative alive that Pep worked wonders.

Some old guard key players slacked off and Frank had no authority over the team with Ronaldinho apparently fucking the coach's daughter so there was no consistency in the league but the potential of the team was clear to anyone.

Xavi and Iniesta completely dominated Euro 2008. Barca also completely dominated eventual CL winners Manchester United (possibly Alex Ferguson's best team) that season. A Scholes wonder goal and a park the bus job did it for them. Meanwhile Real Madrid got 4-2ed by Roma in the round of 16. lol

How can a team with Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Eto', Puyol all in their prime years be in trouble? I wish we were in that sort of trouble right now.

Pep did well to bring discipline and get rid of the party boys but let's not go overboard, that team even with no coaching authority and partying key players played one of the best teams of all time off the park in their own stadium. It was always destined for greatness. Whether Mourinho, Ancelotti, Aragones or any other meritted coach would have taken over.
 

Andresito

Senior Member
Staff member
I don't understand the argument of Pep choosing the easiest teams. Why wouldn't he? He's been the most sought after coach for 10 years now, EVERY big club has been after him, why would he choose a shit club when he doesn't have to?

Depending on how long he'd like to go on, he surely could well end up like the ex top coaches like Ancelotti who have to prove themselves at clubs like Napoli and Everton before getting the chance to manage a top club again.

Pep wants to conquer the world while he still can. When he gets bored of playing God at the likes of Bayern and City he'll take a different type of project, be it as a coach or as a director of some sort.
 

Newcomer

New member
The fact all the dominant clubs in their league are going after Pep Guardiola is a testament of his success. All the other top coaches have a period during which their stock falls and they have to settle for lower standing clubs. All without exception. Even for Mourinho, you could say that MU and Tottenham are a step down while still being massive clubs.
 

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