Fabio Capello has recently returned to headlines, and with some rather bizarre, out of the blue comments about Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.
Pep Guardiola isn’t everyone’s favourite manager. But few, if any, can deny that he’s proved to be a hugely successful manager, winning a fourth-straight Premier League title with Manchester City last season.
Granted, this season has been slow. Last time out, Man City lost 1-0 at Nottingham Forest to find themselves in 5th place of the Premier League table, risking a trophy-less season unless they can go on to lift the FA Cup.
Speaking to El Mundo recently, former England manager Fabio Capello gave a rather scathing review of Guardiola, who he managed at Roma briefly in the 2002/23 season.
Capello said: “You know what I don’t like about Guardiola? His arrogance. The Champions League he won with City is the only one where he didn’t try anything funny in the decisive matches. But all the other years, in Manchester and Munich, on key days, he always wanted to be the protagonist.
“He would change things and invent them so he could say: ‘It’s not the players who win, it’s me’. And that arrogance cost him several Champions Leagues. I respect him, but for me, it’s clear.”
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Capello added: “Besides, even if it is no longer his fault, he has done a lot of harm to football. Because everyone spent ten years trying to copy him. It ruined Italian football, which lost its nature.”
Photo by Michael Regan - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images
Photo by Michael Regan – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images
Speaking on talkSPORT, pundit Troy Deeney has jumped to the defence of Guardiola, reminding Cappello that several former England players have spoken out on his rule over the England squad, almost always in a negative way.
Deeney said: “I find it interesting… First off, when he’s saying everybody else is trying to copy Pep, is that Pep’s fault? Or is that everybody else’s fault for being sheep and not wanting to do their own thing.
“I’ve seen about eight other people do podcasts around Capello’s time at England, and he tried to make everyone Italian, the way that they did things, the way that it was. So it’s very pot kettle black, isn’t it?”
Deeney included: “It seems a little bit salty, to me.”
Fabio Capello’s managerial record vs Pep Guardiola’s
There’s no denying that both managers have had success, with Guardiola still relatively young for a manger and with a potentially very bright future in the game yet.
Already he’s won multiple league titles in England, Germany and Spain, with three Champions League wins to his name too. Capello has league titles in Italy and Spain as a manager, and one Champions League to his name.
Statistic Fabio Capello Pep Guardiola
Games 843 966
Wins 459 692
Draws 241 151
Losses 143 123
Win % 54.45 71.64
Despite being only 54 years old, Guardiola has already overseen almost 1000 games as a manager, redefining the way that so many teams play these days, be that for the good or bad as Capello seems to suggest.
No doubt, football has changed in the last 10 or so years, as City’s dominance has been at the fore of the Premier League. But like Deeney says, Capello may need to check his own career and his own actions before coming after Guardiola’s.