[Albion] Oh Pep

[Springal]

Even with their disclosed numbers, ManC operated on another financial level to the likes of Liverpool etc. Giving them cover for injuries with highly rated players. A couple of key injuries to the others at any time in the season and its season over.

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But when they won the PL 2 seasons ago they used the least players in the whole PL!

 

[Weststander]

But when they won the PL 2 seasons ago they used the least players in the whole PL!

Every one world class. With hidden wage increments to bring them to Manchester.

Money is everything in modern football. The murderous state of Abu Dhabi bought the PL.

 

[Han Solo]

You remember Man City before they had huge piles of money (and were blatantly cheating the system)? They wouldn't be anywhere near where they are without having thrown money at it both before and since Guardiola joined there.

Nobody (or at least nobody worth listening to) would argue against Guardiola being a great manager of great players, who gets fantastic teams to perform at astonishing levels over an extended period of time. He's the best in the world at it. But throwing around the "team full of youth players" thing as if he took Barnstoneworth United's reserves to the top of Europe won't convince anybody who has the wherewithal to actually look at Barcelona's lineup for that final.

Yeah the thing is though, if he doesn't take that bunch of great players and top class talent and help it into becoming the best team the world has ever seen, you'd probably not write that "actually look at Barcelona's lineup for that final". At least some of those players might not have become what they eventually did. La Masia always produces top talent, sometimes something happens with it and sometimes not.

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Yeah the thing is though, if he doesn't take that bunch of great players and top class talent and help it into becoming the best team the world has ever seen, you'd probably not write that "actually look at Barcelona's lineup for that final". At least some of those players might not have become what they eventually did. La Masia always produces top talent, sometimes something happens with it and sometimes not.

The players in that team who didn't come through from Barcelona weren't exactly obscure no hopers before Guardiola got his hands on them. And nobody ever questions his ability to get results out of extremely talented players.

But anyway, I'm not arguing with the achievement. As I say, he's great. I just don't see any need to dress this up as some sort of against the odds underdog story.

 

[Han Solo]

The players in that team who didn't come through from Barcelona weren't exactly obscure no hopers before Guardiola got his hands on them. And nobody ever questions his ability to get results out of extremely talented players.

But anyway, I'm not arguing with the achievement. As I say, he's great. I just don't see any need to dress this up as some sort of against the odds underdog story.

Sure but I still don't buy into the whole argument that he needs to be driving a sheep wagon to work in Aberdeen to prove that he's one of the greats in general terms and not just "his ability to get results out of expensive teams".

No one says "Jack Hinshelwood is great in our environment but he needs to go and win the Serbian third division team to prove himself." Why would a manager need to?

The difference is that we have all played football. We watch Jack Hinselwood and unless we're idiots, we know he's good because we've tried what he's doing. We see what he does. There's no need for him to prove himself through some mumbo jumbo pub football.

Whereas with Pep, none of us has managed a professional football team as far as I know. We basically never watch him work. We have no f***ing clue what he's doing, so its easy to say "hmm, yes... but is he REALLY any good?"

I'm guessing if any of us were to follow him around for a week and watch him at work, we'd go home with the impression that "this guy could do a good job at Rotherham as well, no need for him to go there to prove it."

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Sure but I still don't buy into the whole argument that he needs to be driving a sheep wagon to work in Aberdeen to prove that he's one of the greats in general terms and not just "his ability to get results out of expensive teams".

No one says "Jack Hinshelwood is great in our environment but he needs to go and win the Serbian third division team to prove himself." Why would a manager need to?

The difference is that we have all played football. We watch Jack Hinselwood and unless we're idiots, we know he's good because we've tried what he's doing. We see what he does. There's no need for him to prove himself through some mumbo jumbo pub football.

Whereas with Pep, none of us has managed a professional football team as far as I know. We basically never watch him work. We have no f***ing clue what he's doing, so its easy to say "hmm, yes... but is he REALLY any good?"

I'm guessing if any of us were to follow him around for a week and watch him at work, we'd go home with the impression that "this guy could do a good job at Rotherham as well, no need for him to go there to prove it."

I largely agree, but I tend to think skills involved at managing successfully at a lower level where you have to deal with limited players, worse infrastructure and a finite transfer/wage spend are just different to those skills required to manage a club like Man City. And what "success" in that environment will look like is completely different as well. Neither of those skills or achievements are any more or less valid.

I guess if you wanted you can compare him to somebody like Klopp, who did have a broadly successful time managing Mainz before Dortmund and Liverpool, and if I were picking any manager in the world to go and work at Newhaven I'd probably go for him over Guardiola because I have some basis for the idea that he'd be successful at a slightly lower level [no, I'm not suggesting that the SCFL Premier Division is the same as 2. Bundesliga]. But beyond whimsical asides like that none of these comparisons really amount to much. Amusing as it is to imagine Guardiola storming into a portacabin and demanding a non-league side sign somebody from Italy for £30million, he probably would just be quite boringly good at it.

 

[FCB]

Don't see it happen but Pep said in the past he would like to coach Athletic Bilbao one day. Traditional club with great history and fan base but obvious limitations on the market with their Basque-only philosophy. They've not won La Liga since 1984 and last season was their first Copa title in 40 years (they did win two Supercopas in last decade though).

So not the same as taking over a team in League 1 (which we all know will never happen -or maybe if City is relegated there, lol) but would be a great challenge for him and interesting to see how he would do. Winning a title would probably be expecting too much as would need both Madrid and Barca have a bad season (and when that happens usually Atletico jumps in) but even making them a consistent top 4 team would be a great job imo considering they've only finished 4th once this century (2013-14).

 

[MikeHimself]

I largely agree, but I tend to think skills involved at managing successfully at a lower level where you have to deal with limited players, worse infrastructure and a finite transfer/wage spend are just different to those skills required to manage a club like Man City. And what "success" in that environment will look like is completely different as well. Neither of those skills or achievements are any more or less valid.

I guess if you wanted you can compare him to somebody like Klopp, who did have a broadly successful time managing Mainz before Dortmund and Liverpool, and if I were picking any manager in the world to go and work at Newhaven I'd probably go for him over Guardiola because I have some basis for the idea that he'd be successful at a slightly lower level [no, I'm not suggesting that the SCFL Premier Division is the same as 2. Bundesliga]. But beyond whimsical asides like that none of these comparisons really amount to much. Amusing as it is to imagine Guardiola storming into a portacabin and demanding a non-league side sign somebody from Italy for £30million, he probably would just be quite boringly good at it.

We can be thankful that when Fab assumes the mantle of “best ever coach” he will have shown via his promotion winning times at Pipinsried and St Pauli that he can cut the mustard on a cold night in Bavaria or Hamburg….
Fab’s desire for the team ( and himself ) to “challenge the establishment“ and the win against City obviously irked Pep enough into the onfield shenanigans with Jan Paul after the whistle. It wasn’t passive/aggressive, Pep was seething that City ended up in virtually a low block with 10 men behind the ball when Jan Paul was repeatedly splaying passes over the defensive line for our forwards during that critical phase when Joao and Matt were on the pitch.