I may perhaps be in the minority of those that don't buy into the Guardiola hype. For many, he's one of the best managers in the world, and they point to his success and trophies with Barcelona and Bayern. For me though, I look at the teams he's managed and the amount of talent within them, and I am far from convinced.
If there's any credit I give to Pep, it's his achievements with Barcelona rather than Bayern. That was a team that he sort of built up, and he was behind turning Iniesta and Xavi from passers-by to focal points of his Barcelona. And of course, everyone's favorite tic-tac-toe tactic that made them a dominant force. As much as I hated that style of football, they beat whatever came their way and you have to say they deserved their triumph.
But I don't give Pep one iota of praise for what he's done for Bayern. First of all, he inherited a team that had just won the treble pretty comfortably. So he was tasked with improving upon perfection. Then he took the two best players from their title rivals to make them even more invincible in the Bundesliga and ending any sort of contest. How then do you expect me to now call him the best manager in the world when he's been blessed with so much talent?
The only way for Pep to prove himself to me is by going either to Scunthorpe, or a team like Tottenham or Valencia where they are not exactly useless but they aren't blessed with great players either.By him going to team like this and succeeding, then that would be able to tell me how good of a manager he is. He can't just keep hopping to clubs that have unspeakable amounts of cheddar where he can get any player he wants, and call that a challenge.
If it is true that City will be his next destination, that's sad to me. Even if he wins the Premiership or the Champions League with City, I'll just fold my arms and nod nonchalantly. It's not challenging enough going to a club that have so much cash to spend. Where is the difficulty? How deep do you have to dig for all your coaching tricks to squeeze out those points?
I won't go so far as to say Pep is a fraud, even though Fraudiola is a great name. But he does not deserve the kind of praise that he receives in the media and even on the street. Until he can be successful with a club that doesn't have a chest of riches and treasures, he can never be called an elite manager.
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HH
