Manchester City are vying for a treble this month and Pep Guardiola and his squad are receiving mountains of praise for their quality.
Is Pep Guardiola one of the best manager’s to ever coach in Europe? There is a debate to be had here.
He has posted a win percentage above 70 with FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and now with Manchester City. He won three league titles in Spain, three in Germany, and is on the verge of his third in England.
Now that he has finally led City to its first UCL Final in club history, he is being hailed as the greatest manager of all-time. A mastermind in the sport.
Before making these claims, please take a moment to step back and realize all the resources available to him.
Pep did a wonderful job with Barca between ’08 and ’12 with the club he played for for over a decade, but keep in mind the wealth of talent he had at his disposal.
In the 247 matches he led Barcelona, he had an emerging Lionel Messi, a Ballon d’Or winner in Ronaldinho, a young Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thierry Henry on the left wing, one of the best midfield duos ever in Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez, and had Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol anchoring the backline!
Specifically, the Barcelona team of 2010/2011 is hailed as the best Barca team ever since they won the treble after many of those same players helped Spain to its first World Cup title the summer before.
Fast forward to 2013 when Pep moved to Bavaria and the giants of Germany, Bayern Munich.
Look at the plethora of talent he once again had at his disposal when he arrived!
Guardiola took control of Bayern a year before Germany would hoist the World Cup trophy in Brazil (notice a pattern here?) and several of these players in his starting XI were key figures on that team.
Neuer, Boateng, Schweinsteiger, Muller, and*not pictured here*Toni Kroos & Phillip Lahm all started in the World Cup Final against Argentina!
How can you not succeed on the club level when over half of the starters for the World Cup winning German national team are on your roster?
In addition, the man who scored the game-winning goal in the final – Mario Gotze – was a member of Bayern Munich as well!
Now to City.
Pep left Bayern in the summer of 2016 to join Manchester City.
Between his arrival and August of 2019, Guardiola has seen the club execute762.3 million eurosworth of transfers, according toMarca!
Not included in that total are the signings of center backs Ruben Dias bought for €71.6 million and Nathan Ake bought for €47.5 million.
These signings made this season came after Pep signed Aymeric Laporte from Bilbao in 2018 for €65 million and John Stones from Everton in 2016 for €55.6 million.
Add that all together and what do you got? €239.7 million on center backs! ALONE!
Shouldn’t City have won the Champions League – let alone made the final – sooner with four quality center backs on the first-team and the likes of Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus, Kevin De Bruyne, Riyad Mahrez, and Raheem Sterling leading the forward line?
Pep is a tactical mastermind, without a doubt, but give any competent football mind this wealth of talent and I am sure they could succeed as well!
The best example available is Hansi Flick with Bayern Munich. Flick was the manager for 1899 Hoffenheim between 2000 and 2005, but hadbeen an assistant for nearly 15 yearswhen he was named as the interim manager of Bayern when Niko Kovac was fired in November 2019.
Flick made one big signing while manager – bringing Leroy Sane over from Man City – and brought Douglas Costa back from Juventus on loan, but otherwise, the starting XI stayed relatively unchanged from years past.
Flick and Bayern won every competition they played in between (all 6 of them). Now he is leaving to go coach the German national team. Simply because he wants to.
Pep has won just about everything a manager can win, and he is a tactical genius (most of the time), but give any competent manager this type of talent and they will win.
A lot.
