On February 1, 2016, Manchester City formally confirmed the identity of their new coach and signalled the beginning of a challenging new era in English club football
Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City portrait before the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 match between Manchester City and Galatasaray
On this day ten years ago, Manchester City announced the impending arrival of Pep Guardiola(Image: (Photo by Nigel French/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images))
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At three minutes past one o’clock in the afternoon, on this day one decade ago, Manchester City made one of the most significant announcements in the history of English club football. When Pep Guardiola leaves the Premier League, assessments of his legacy will be legion and will be varied.
But the written confirmation of his arrival on these shores - delivered in a 110-word missive on the club’s website on February 1, 2016 - was the prologue to an era that challenged conventional footballing wisdom on these shores. That is the legacy that is indisputable.
Everything else will be up for fierce and complex debate. For a start, there are 115 charges. If his tangible success - his extensive collection of trophies - was won with a club that broke the Premier League’s financial rules, then that tangible success will be tainted, even though most of the alleged breaches go back to before he started work at the Etihad. And don’t forget, there will never be any implication that Guardiola was involved in any sort of wrongdoing.
Even if the club is cleared of any serious misdemeanours, there will be some who make the simple claim that Guardiola’s achievements have, to a decisive extent, been the products of Manchester City’s financial might. And they will have a decent argument because it is unarguable that he could have won so much without lavish investment in players.
There will be those who think six Premier League titles in a spell of seven seasons was the sort of dominance that is not good for elite football. But the competition never lost its allure during that time. City have not been as fiercely competitive over the last year and a half, and it could be suggested that the overall standard of football has not been as compelling as it was in previous seasons.
And that is because a free-flowing Manchester City under the direction of Guardiola has been one of the most thrilling sights in the history of English football. The vintage City teams of the Guardiola decade have never passed for the sake of passing. It has been quick, incisive, visionary stuff.
And here’s the thing. Even defeat sometimes failed to dim the brilliance of Pep’s great City teams.
Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City, embraces Kevin De Bruyne
Kevin de Bruyne has been one of many players to flourish under Pep Guardiola(Image: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
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Somehow, City lost their Champions League semi-final tie against Real Madrid in 2022. Yet those of us there for the first leg at the Etihad - a 4-3 City win - were enthralled by a night of pure magic.
It was a night when City could and should have scored ten. But that did not matter to the neutral. It did not matter that, somehow, Real managed to win the return leg 3-1.
For those with no emotional connection to the outcome of a match involving a Guardiola team, it was, for a long period, almost always enthralling, or at least intriguing. And that has been because of that one indisputable legacy. Pep has challenged our conventional footballing wisdom.
From his demands that his keeper is a footballer, to his inverted full-backs, to his defenders as midfielders, to a spell when his attacking systems were implausibly fluid, Guardiola has been the most influential coach in English football in the modern era. And, wonderfully, he has given great players - Kevin de Bruyne, Rodri, to name only two - the tactical nourishment for them to produce feasts.
Pep Guardiola with the Premier League trophy
Pep Guardiola's impact on English football goes beyond his six Premier League titles(Image: PA)
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Tactical thinking in football has always been cyclical. And this current Premier League is being shaped by set-pieces, by long throws, by directness, by stuff that is pretty uncomplicated.
Perhaps that is why many feel Guardiola will decide that this season in the Premier League will be his tenth and last. He points out that he has an agreement that runs until the summer of 2027 and that he has always honoured his contract.
So maybe he stays for one more season. But one thing is for certain - when Manchester City made that announcement ten years ago today, they were announcing a challenging new era of English club football.
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