“We are sons of the Dream Team, trying to emulate them,” — a quote used from Pep Guardiola in 2009 to describe the Barcelona team he took over from Frank Rijkaard a year before. The quote was directed towards the ‘dream team’ Johan Cruyff had created in his stint of the club. Guardiola was primarily used as a defensive midfielder; beginning his career for Barcelona ‘B,’ he clocked 59 appearances for the team until Cryuff added the final piece to his brilliant jigsaw and stepped back and viewed what he had created, the dream team.
Guardiola appeared for Barcelona 366 times in the eleven years he had played for the famous club, collecting 6 la Liga trophies, 2 Copa Del Reys and one European cup, giving Barcelona’s first of four victories in the famous competition. Never contributing much to the attacking side of Barcelona, he became a pivot for the midfield and proved his worth for the club becoming the captain of Cruyffs team. He then left Barcelona in 2001 and retired in 2006 while playing for Mexican side Dorados.
The retirement didn’t last long however, as in 2007 he was appointed Barcelona ‘B’ manager and guided them to promotion from Tercera División, the fourth level of Spanish football to Segunda División B in his first season in charge. The following season, he was then promoted to Barcelona FC, a decision which at first wasn’t looked upon greatly. Barcelona at the time were viewed as a team that needed to be reconstructed, a team that had too many celebrities and not enough footballers. The Catalan newspaper El Mundo Deportivo reported that Jose Mourinho was to become the next Barcelona manager quoting that the now Chelsea manager “explained the main lines of his football project. He even handed Barcelona vice president Marc Ingla and sports director Txiki Begiristain a DVD that contained a more complete analysis and his view on the team and the players.”
But that wasn’t to be, and Guardiola was chosen as the successor to Rijkaard and given the task of turning Barcelona from headlining the gossip pages to headlining the sports pages. Guardiola had imposed new rules on the team such as creating a dining room for the players so they could all eat together, and whenever they were training, the public and press could not follow, making the training sessions private to only the players. Fines were introduced to the club; being late to training resulted in a €6,000 fine and missing a team breakfast would result in a €500 punishment. Guardiola wanted a togetherness of the players but also a professional attitude.
Because the La Liga, Champion’s League, Copa del Rey and now Bundesliga trophies weren’t proof enough.
Glad you made me aware of his greatness.
He’d never make it in England 🙂
Yeah. Let’s see what he does in Rochdale!!
Great manager; but for me, annoying as he is, Mourinho is better.
And for what its worth, it was Mourinho who figured out how to beat Pep’s Barcelona.
Yeah, after 5-0 loss 🙂
Its easier to win Mourinhos negative way. Pep is all about winning with style. He is a positive manager and doesnt need to drag his opponent rep thru the mud or belittle people or turn every game into a grudge match. His tactics are much more creative/ambitious too so Id have him as the best but theyre both great managers. Neither are a patch on David Moyes though… hahahahahaha ahhh just kiddin
yeah barely, not the way Bayern beat Barcelona 3 times in a row.
At some point would be nice to see if he could rebuild a team and keep them in the hunt while rebuilding.Sort of like Phil Jackson the coach only goes where the winning is assured.
…because at the NY Knicks winning is assured?
Read it again that is why i said COACH! not GM! Anymore question?
Yes, are you on medication?
i guess you don’t know the difference between coach and GM look it up in a Webster’s.
still the article dint answer y pep is gr8st manager in world
Im sorry but when you have players like Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Eto’o, Pique, Alves, Ibra, Puyol, Lahm, Gotze, Ribery, Robben, Schweinsteiger, Alaba, Dante, and Muller is it really that hard to manage. You have the best players in the world at each of their respected positions you could tell them to run around a bit and they will still dominate.
Coaches like Pep and Jose are overrated in my opinion. You give them the best players in the world and an open check book of course they will be great. Send them to a place like West Ham, Stoke, Napoli, Sevilla and see how they do. I doubt articles like this will come out about them.
Why does everyone forget what Jose did with his first club and then Porto who took to the CL on less than $300,000.
He earnt a shot at the top with success at far less fashionable clubs.
He’s managed 2 already successful teams and spent a fair whack adding to that. It really isn,’t that good.
A bit off-subject (Is Pep…?). While I won’t say a certain current Manager (Coach) in the EPL is the best in the World, I believe he has shown he can take a team to the next level. He’s done it step by step from one team to another. Who is that?…Roberto Martinez.
Wigan – very low budget, won the FA Cup, then takes over Everton and has so far has taken team to next level up (over what Moyes did at Everton).
Martinez is a smart Manager.
pep is an incredible coach,he does the with passion