Guardiola no longer competes with Klopp, who made him a better coach through healthy competitiveness, especially at Liverpool. He stopped competing with Mourinho a long time ago, the coach who brought out the worst in the then Barça manager for his ability to live in conflict. Perhaps it could be said that if he now has to deal with someone on the bench, it is with one of the coaches who were once part of his team at Manchester City, such as Arteta (Arsenal) or Maresca (Chelsea), a sign of the ascendant and the influence he exerts on his professional colleagues and on football in the Premier, the Bundesliga and the League. Guardiola, in any case, competes today with Guardiola.
The coach of the team that has only won one of the last 11 games, drawn two and lost eight, is the same one who won up to 18 trophies with the same club, including the Champions League, a tournament that was required as irrefutable proof that he was also capable of conquering Europe without Messi and therefore being classified as number one. Although it was not very clear what could be expected from Guardiola in the 2024-2025 season, no one envisioned such an unprecedented situation on the field or such a surprising decision in the offices as that of renewing for two seasons, until 2027, when from For days there had been doubts about his continuity at the Etihad after 2025. Guardiola gave stability to the institution in a very delicate and uncertain moment and in exchange he shouldered greater responsibility at City.
The announced departure of sports director Txiki Begiristáin and the different sanctions that are foreseen for more than a hundred open cases for violating financial regulations, invited Guardiola to follow in the footsteps of his Basque friend at the end of the season. The coach, however, chose the opposite direction and prolonged their relationship to the point of becoming an institutional figure at City. “More than a coach” read a large banner displayed in the stadium last Sunday before the derby against United. The challenge is huge: “I will not take a step back. “I am the boss, I am the coach, I have to find a solution,” he argues. “I’m not good enough,” Guardiola concluded.
A statement that will sound like self-demand to the ears of his followers, while to his critics it will seem like another example of his “arrogant and presumptuous” character, to use Capello’s words. City’s recovery has become a personal issue for Guardiola. The process is not easy for a coach with a career associated with success due to his professional worth and a personality marked by emotionality. “We do not play with serenity,” he warned days after his nails had scratched his freshly shaved bald head and he showed six fingers to remember the six League titles won in response to the chant of “tomorrow you will be fired” heard at Anfield.
Guardiola passionately defends his resume, his contract and his impact on football in the same way that his rivals effusively celebrate victory after many defeats and the early announcement of the end of City’s reign. There are those who cannot stand or are fed up with Guardiola, there are also those who celebrate his loss and it is known that there are many who hate City for being a nouveau riche in a championship famous for Liverpool, United, Arsenal or the Chelsea.
Injuries – especially Rodri’s – have decimated the team; individual errors compromise the collective effort; Guardiola himself may have exhausted some veterans while the newcomers find it difficult to learn tactical lessons; A destabilizing player like Foden was last year is missing; and the squad needs a reform after only Savinho was signed in the last market and Gündogan was recovered while Julián Álvarez went to Atlético.
Guardiola did not win any titles in his first year with City. The many doubts about the application of his idea of the game in the Premier ended the following season when the talent, ingenuity, capacity for innovation and perfectionism of the coach were confirmed. Later he was accused of overthinking things until they lost their naturalness. And now there is talk of an unexpected present. The coach assures that he still has the energy to turn around the results and it is assumed that he does not lack the passion that has been vital in his career.
Whether Guardiola gets his way will depend more than anything on managing his emotions and being consistent with his way of being: do what you feel or otherwise you will regret it. Guardiola competes more than ever with Guardiola and that’s why he scratches himself, he hurts himself, he wonders why things are happening to him lately and he convinces himself that his adrenaline still gets the better of him and therefore, even if he wanted to, he can’t leave Manchester now. City.
