An article on Guardiola has been at the back of my mind for a while now. It gathered momentum after the first leg of the Champions League quarter final match between Bayern Munich and Porto. The dramatic events of the two legs have had no bearing on my opinion of Pep or this article itself.
Let’s first discuss Guardiola the player. For young readers
who didn’t get to see Pep play, he was a decent player who played as defensive
midfielder for Barcelona and few other clubs. He soon became the identity of
the club, much like Puyol or Terry (for Chelsea) later. He was the local kid
who came up through the ranks, the Catalan who played alongside some of the
greats like Romario, Laudrup, Stoichkov, Koeman, etc.
In recent years, we have heard, in glowing terms, of
Guardiola the manager. A glittering four years at Barcelona with 13 trophies in
the cabinet including 2 Champions League. He is a good manager, make no mistake
about it, but is he a great manager? No. I believe he is the most overhyped
manager in recent times.
First of all, he was manager of a Barcelona team which can
be considered “the greatest” not only in the club’s history but also in
comparison to any club side of the last 100 years. Let’s face it; he didn’t win
the Champions League with Nottingham Forest or Red Star Belgrade or Porto.
Secondly, he didn’t invent “Tiki Taka” style of playing. He
didn’t sign the Argentinian wunderkid as a 13 year old. He didn’t build this
team, he inherited it. Most of the ground work was already in place even before
he took over the mantle. Rijkaard had already got them playing mesmerizing
football with Ronaldinho, Messi, Xavi, Giuly, Henry. Pep made a few cosmetic
changes and voila it was magic!
Peter Fleming once remarked about his astonishing doubles
partner “… John Mcenroe and anyone”. Much like that, with Messi, Xavi, Iniesta,
Yaya, Puyol, Valdes in the team, “anyone” could have managed the team to
similar or even greater success.
He was at the right place at the right time. Once he knew
that the team had run out of steam and not much was coming out of La Masia, he
quit. The newspapers saw a great story about him suffering “burn out” (of what? Success). Subsequently
Barca brought the chequebook out and signed Neymar and Suarez.
After a yearlong
sabbatical, the opportunistic beast that is Guardiola, turned up at Bayern
where Jupp Heynckes already had a cracking team in place and the
wealth/clout/history to pillage star players from rival Bundesliga teams. Now the "magician" is leading the charge on all fronts!
Another article mentioned that Guardiola has reached
Champions League semi-finals in all 6 years as a coach. Wow! Wouldn’t it have
been so incredible if he had done all that as manager of Atletico Madrid and
Borussia Dortmund instead of Barcelona and Bayern Munich?
The jury is still out on Pep. He is a modern manager with an
eye for personal success on his CV. He does not have the time to build a
dynasty a-la Ferguson, Clough or Wenger. I am certain that he will see out his
contract at Bayern and move on to greener pastures. It is only a matter of time
before someone makes him an offer he can’t refuse (The Godfather, huh?)
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