Pep Guardiola

BarcaOG

BarcaOG

Banned
I think Pep is phenomenal and legendary, but I still think SAF is the GOAT. Pep hasn't been anywhere long enough to successfully rebuild an exhausted squad past its best. I think that's the hardest thing to do in football, and SAF did it ~3-4 times. It's a lot easier to take a job elsewhere, with a fresh batch of young players, once a 'cycle' has ended. This is not to diminish what Pep has achieved, which is beyond impressive--only to highlight just how good SAF was.

That said, SAF's style was/is not as influential as Pep's, in terms of impact beyond the club they managed.
 
Bobo32

Bobo32

Senior Member
BarcaOG said:
I think Pep is phenomenal and legendary, but I still think SAF is the GOAT. Pep hasn't been anywhere long enough to successfully rebuild an exhausted squad past its best. I think that's the hardest thing to do in football, and SAF did it ~3-4 times. It's a lot easier to take a job elsewhere, with a fresh batch of young players, once a 'cycle' has ended. This is not to diminish what Pep has achieved, which is beyond impressive--only to highlight just how good SAF was.

That said, SAF's style was/is not as influential as Pep's, in terms of impact beyond the club they managed.
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Comparison to SAF is a bit strange right now since Pep coached just a bit more than 10 years. In 20 more years the final comparison can be made.
I think that Pep rebuilt Barcelona in a way. But other than that, he has had too short spells in his clubs to do what SAF did multiple times in United where he stayed for 25 years or whatever it was.
 
BarcaOG

BarcaOG

Banned
Bobo32 said:
Comparison to SAF is a bit strange right now since Pep coached just a bit more than 10 years. In 20 more years the final comparison can be made.
I think that Pep rebuilt Barcelona in a way. But other than that, he has had too short spells in his clubs to do what SAF did multiple times in United where he stayed for 25 years or whatever it was.
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Pep has not coached any team long enough to successfully rebuild it after its key players have declined/left. When he left Barcelona, all of Xavi, Iniesta, and Puyol were still starters. Hardly a re-build. Hell, Busi and Messi are still playing. SAF rebuilt United's entire squad something like 3 times, and always to victory. Nothing more impressive than that.
 
Bobo32

Bobo32

Senior Member
BarcaOG said:
Pep has not coached any team long enough to successfully rebuild it after its key players have declined/left. When he left Barcelona, all of Xavi, Iniesta, and Puyol were still starters. Hardly a re-build. Hell, Busi and Messi are still playing. SAF rebuilt United's entire squad something like 3 times, and always to victory. Nothing more impressive than that.
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Well yes, that was my point.

What I meant with rebuilding Barcelona was what he did when arriving by selling Ronaldinho, Deco, Edmilson, Thuram, Zambrotta and a few other squad players, and promoting Pedro and Busquets, etc.
Even if they had a poor 2007 season and only placed 3rd, he still turned them into treble winners with some key changes, getting rid of some of the best players (even Eto'o the year after as well). I understand that is not what you meant, but I think he showed similar vision then as what SAF did multiple times in United.
 
BarcaOG

BarcaOG

Banned
Bobo32 said:
Well yes, that was my point.

What I meant with rebuilding Barcelona was what he did when arriving by selling Ronaldinho, Deco, Edmilson, Thuram, Zambrotta and a few other squad players, and promoting Pedro and Busquets, etc.
Even if they had a poor 2007 season and only placed 3rd, he still turned them into treble winners with some key changes, getting rid of some of the best players (even Eto'o the year after as well). I understand that is not what you meant, but I think he showed similar vision then as what SAF did multiple times in United.
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Ohhh---right, I see your point.

Yeah, that's true. It took a lot of courage to ship Ronnie and Deco. No doubt about that.
 
Bobo32

Bobo32

Senior Member
BarcaOG said:
Ohhh---right, I see your point.

Yeah, that's true. It took a lot of courage to ship Ronnie and Deco. No doubt about that.
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Another impressive thing about Ferguson is that he was succesful over such a long time. It's not only that he switched his best players at the right time (before anyone else thought it was time), he also was able to adapt to a very different football world.

Some here like to go on about how football changed since Pep's time at Barcelona, I don't see that change so clearly. But think about the difference between the time of his first PL titles (or even his time at Aberdeen, which I know very little about, but he won european titles) and compare that to the situation in 2009 or 2011, where he was soundly beaten, but still put on a fight against in my opinion the best team of all time, playing pretty differently than the teams he faced in the 80s or 90s, surely.

This is maybe the big thing about him that will always keep him above Pep in many peoples eyes, because even though I wrote earlier about 20 years, I doubt Pep will manage for that long, I suspect he's approaching the end of his managerial carreeer already.
 
Catta

Catta

Senior Member
Pep won a CL away game, wow.

Not the usual City dominant win, but still a great game from Pep and his players. After conceding, they stayed calm, played their game, and won. Deserved their win.
 
Horatio

Horatio

You're welcome
Why are people praising Pep? Shouldn't law of average have him win an away game eventually?

Anyway, hope he or Tuchel wins it.
 
BarcaOG

BarcaOG

Banned
Tackle said:
Real test of his managerial abilities will be how he manages the 2nd leg.
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if the game had been at the Etihad with the same scoreline (2-1 city) you'd say the exact same thing: real test of his managerial abilities will be how he manages the 2nd (away) leg

enough!! credit where credit is due. he got his W today.
 
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