Manchester City appealed to Pep Guardiola as it will for Enzo Maresca, and the former manager has to play his part to keep the charm
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 24: Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City, reacts as a montage of his time at Manchester City is played on the LED screen inside the stadium following the Premier League match between Manchester City and Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium on May 24, 2026 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 24: Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City, reacts as a montage of his time at Manchester City is played on the LED screen inside the stadium following the Premier League match between Manchester City and Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium on May 24, 2026 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
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Pep Guardiola(Image: Carl Recine, Getty Images)
England had always appealed to Pep Guardiola, first as a player and then a coach. There is a romance that comes with the history and traditions of football in this country that had the Manchester City manager gleefully taking in the atmosphere in every ground from Chelsea to Cheltenham.
As he sized up his next move after Bayern Munich, however, there was also a practical benefit towards life in the Premier League. Compared to where he had been in his career, the Etihad was going to feel like a holiday.
Having taken on the Barcelona job as a rookie, Guardiola was instantly monstered in the Spanish press when he got off to a rocky start. When he returned with City in the Champions League, reporters and photographers gave rolling updates for newspapers and TV channels on his every action, including what he had for dinner, who joined him for it, and when he went to bed.
In Germany there was not as much focus on that, but Bayern as a club had its own history and prestige that Guardiola was trying to please at the same time as doing his job. There was never a shortage of Bayern or German greats to speak to TV reporters or write a newspaper column if there was anything they disliked about what the coach was doing.
Whereas in England, there was more privacy and more respect. It has changed a little over the years with pundits becoming more opinionated but for a while the biggest critic of Guardiola had been former England striker Stan Collymore and as far as City greats went, Micah Richards was the only real voice.
Noel Gallagher told how Guardiola furiously messaged him after hearing the Oasis frontman on talkSPORT saying that he didn't think City would win the league last season, yet there has been very little to be bothered by. For a man who would obsess over coverage so much he became a regular watcher of Sky Sports Ref Watch, the absence of noise around his decisions was blissful for Guardiola and a big reason why he ended up staying as long as he did.
Now though, anything Guardiola says will be noted and potentially served up to his successor Enzo Maresca. City sponsor OKX last week released an interview with the former Blues boss and even in that there was a suggestion that the squad may not be as strong as it appears to give Maresca and sporting director Hugo Viana more work.
That may not be the case, but even if it is it probably isn't helpful to those still at City for the points to be made by Guardiola. Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp ended up having to apologise to Germany manager Julian Nagelsmann at the World Cup after taking up punditry and making a controversial point, and a few weeks later Nagelsmann was out of a job with Klopp set to replace him.
Guardiola still has coaching ambitions, and even when he tries to play golf there will be occasions where microphones are thrust towards him. He knows that the best way that he can support Maresca though is to stay quiet and in the background, available for private counsel but otherwise keeping out of the way.
Having appreciated the lack of people sticking their oar in while he was manager, Guardiola cannot change what he has achieved in the game but will know that anything public he says about City will be given more attention than anyone else. The less he says, the better for Maresca.