Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola is leaving Man City after 10 glittering years (Image: Getty)
The Stone Roses had just taken to the stage at Etihad Stadium in the summer of 2016. As the late, great Mani’s baseline from I Wanna Be Adored reverberated around the arena, smoke bombs and pyrotechnics began to occupy the early evening sky.
Up until Oasis returned to the stage for the first time in over 15 years last summer, the Stone Roses’ comeback was the biggest reunion in British music history this century. From my vantage point in the third tier of the Etihad Stadium, I stood there transfixed, not on the stage, but at where Pep Guardiola would occupy the Manchester City dugout in a couple of months time.
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One of Guardiola’s opening lines from his first press conference as City boss in 2016 was: “I want to make our fans proud.” Fast forward 10 years, 20 trophies, six Premier League titles, four of which were in a row, and a Treble… it’s safe to say he achieved just that.
There are plenty of people who will muse about how Guardiola achieved his success at City better than I ever will. From the tactics, to the personnel, to the in-game tweaks and training ground masterclasses. From where I see it though, football is a sport played on the pitch, but the true love for the game comes from elsewhere.
As I once again found myself gazing over at the dugout mid-Stone Roses concert, I turned to my long-suffering City-supporting dad, and said: “The actual Pep Guardiola will be standing there next season.” The sentence didn’t feel real. For my dad, who had spent his formative years watching the likes of Steve Coppell, Alan Ball and Frank Clark preside over increasingly failing City teams, it must’ve felt like I was speaking a different language.
Of course, City had won silverware in the modern era before Guardiola. Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini delivered two Premier League titles within two years of each other. But Guardiola was from a different realm. A club like City, which 18 years earlier found itself in the third tier of English football, didn’t hire a manager like Guardiola.
Manchester City v West Ham United - Premier League
Pep Guardiola won six Premier League titles across his 10 years in charge (Image: Getty)
FC Internazionale v Manchester City FC - UEFA Champions League Final 2022/23
Pep Guardiola delivered Man City's first-ever Champions League trophy (Image: Getty)
Chelsea v Manchester City - Emirates FA Cup Final
Pep Guardiola waved goodbye to English football with an FA Cup win on Saturday (Image: Getty)
Except they did, and as the great Catalan expressed in Friday’s farewell press conference: “The rest is history.” History that won’t be bettered for a very, very long time, if not ever.
Naturally, the debate has already turned to comparisons with Alex Ferguson, with Guardiola himself labelling the ex-Manchester United boss as the “greatest” during Friday’s swansong. But since Pep doesn’t want to fight his own corner, I will.
Across their time in English football, the only thing Ferguson has over Guardiola is longevity, and subsequently more tropies. An incredible trait nonetheless, but most, if not all, of Ferguson’s biggest achievements have tumbled during the Guardiola era.
Three in a row? Pep did four. The domestic treble, which Ferguson went on record to say would be too hard to achieve? Boxed off in Pep’s third season. Ferguson’s crowning glory, the Treble? Completed it, mate. You can chuck in an FA Cup final victory over his lot to round it off for good measure.
Oh, Guardiola also put up a 100-point season, the record for any Premier League team, ever. Ferguson’s best, you ask? That would be 92 points, and even that came during a 42-game season. Guardiola has bettered it on three separate occasions.
Guardiola averages a trophy every 30 games as City boss. Every 30 games. Just let that sink in. If Pep stayed as long as Ferguson, the FA would probably have to name a competition after him, after all, barely anyone else has got their hands on silverware during his tenure.
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Man City fans could only dream of what Pep Guardiola's tenure entailed (Image: Express Sport)
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Pep Guardiola helped turn those dreams into a reality (Image: Express Sport)
But this is the most important part, the man himself. "We cannot replace him" remarked Guardiola during Sergio Aguero's 2021 farewell. He was unknowingly speaking about himself. Great tacticians will come and go, some of them will even grace the Etihad Stadium dugout, but whatever *it* is, Guardiola had it in abundance.
Whether you agree with his stances or not, seeing a manager use their platform to platform causes close to their heart was as refreshing as it was poignant. From Catalan independence causes to wearing a jumper depicting the logo of Open Arms - a Spanish non-governmental organisation operating search and rescue missions for migrants in the Mediterranean.
My grandad and Guardiola didn't have much in common. He was a burly Irishman from County Kilkenny, who no doubt thought tapas and sangria were forms of derogatory insults. However, on May 22, 2017, the night of the Manchester Arena attack, by a brutal twist of fate, my Grandad and Guardiola both found themselves in the same place.
Guardiola had received a frantic phone call from his wife, who was at the Ariana Grande concert with their daughters. Recalling the story at a later date, the City boss rushed to the Arena to find his loved ones, which was exactly what my own grandad did, after a member of our family was caught up in the attack.
Tragically, 22 people lost their lives on a night that scarred the city of Manchester. I don't write this to glorify an incredibly human response to tragedy. Moreover, when Guardiola announced his City departure on Friday, the nine-year anniversary of the 2017 incident, he referenced the attack in a farewell speech he'd written himself.
He gets it because he's lived it. Guardiola has become Manchester, and Manchester has become Guardiola. It isn't an easy thing to do. Manchester is a city of swagger, arrogance and attitude. Sorry Liam and Noel, it's Pep manner now.
My Grandad died in 2021. He adored Pep and was so proud to have him as City's manager. If only I could tell him everything the Blues had achieved in the years since he passed.
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The 2017 Manchester Arena attack left a deep cut on the city of Manchester (Image: Getty)
Manchester City v Aston Villa - Premier League
Pep Guardiola took Manchester in his stride (Image: Getty)
And that’s why, when the full-time whistle blows on Sunday, I’ll probably be inconsolable. Because the history books will show a relentless winner, but for the City fan who grew up playing football in my grandparents’ backyard in Moss Side, itself in the shadow of Maine Road, Guardiola’s 10 years will be remembered for so much more than that.
The joys of the Centurion season, the unrelenting 2018/19 title tussle with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, Ilkay Gundogan’s final day heroics in 2022, the journey to Istanbul where City’s Champions League dreams came true, and last weekend in north London, when, for the final time as manager, Guardiola hoisted a trophy above his head, all amazing sporting moments. But the 90 minutes only tell part of the story; it's the memories that will last a lifetime.
I’ll look over to the dugout one last time on Sunday, with a lump in my throat, to say thank you and farewell.