The End of a Dream

By the time Pep Guardiola arrived in Manchester, the Spaniard had already proved himself as an important part of football history. Presented with a chance that no manager truly had before him, Pep essentially created a club.

While City existed with a fascinating story before him, the club he’s leaving is one made in his image.

No other manager in football history saw the opportunity that Pep did well over a decade ago. Despite the impact he made on the sport with Barça, City is the club that he built.

While his reinvention of tiki-taka ushered in this modern era of the sport, he built the system out of an already existing structure at the club. Bayern always felt like a weird stop, as no matter who the manager is, they are subservient to the Bayern way. At both his prior stops in the City, something always hindered the Spaniard from making the club his own.

The sort of opportunity that City gave him was only possible with the situation that the club found itself in. With seemingly unlimited cash and a promising, but not fully polished, academy system, a chance to build something new lay in front of him. Winning the Champions League became the crowning moment for both parties, proving that this marriage was correct.

As City prepares for this next era, they need to prove that this success wasn’t just due to the Spaniard.

On the other hand, all that remains for Pep is to enjoy this break and potentially manage a national team.

Other managers across the sport’s history envisioned some form of tiki-taka, but that style will forever be tied to Pep. The teams he built with the Catalan giant and, to a lesser extent, Bayern enshrined him as the architect of modern football.

With arguably the most talented squad at his disposal, Pep had the perfect opportunity to build the team of the future. Messi’s emergence as the greatest player of all time helped make this process easier. Even with the head start this team gave him, the manager deserves credit for being so willing to impose this style on the team.

Some detractors may argue that he merely took advantage of this talented crop of players. However, it was his vision to take a system created over decades by different Barça managers and apply it to the perfect team.

Should one give Pep a greater share of the credit for that team that dominated the late 2000s and early 2010s, it’s difficult to downplay the environment he rose up in.

From La Masia to the club’s philosophy, Pep was always a cog in a larger machine. Especially as they saw success beyond the manager’s years, doubt crept in as to whether the manager’s impact was truly that great.

Following Barça with a stint at Bayern felt both natural and strange. The German club rivals the Catalan club as one of the sport’s superpowers. Choosing that job felt perfect for both sides, even if he was taking charge of an already talented side.

Despite never reaching the same heights with a good, but not great, Bayern side, Pep left the club with pieces that would eventually form the next era of Bavarian success. His impact only really felt notable through these additions, as the club itself always stood above the manager. There was only so much he could do at Bayern with the club remaining structured in the way it is.

Pep still made history at both Barça and Bayern, but neither felt like his proper club.

Something, be it the club’s organization or its very DNA, ultimately hindered that possibility.

When City offered him the job in 2016, the football world waited to see if he could finally push the club into the same breath as the sport’s elite. Within a decade, he pulled off something the sport never really anticipated.

City, before Pep but after their first title since the ownership change, desperately awaited someone to give them the credibility they so much desired. In the Spaniard, they saw the piece that would finally deliver them into the same realm as the Barças of the World. So when Pep appeared on the job market, the Citizens were willing to do whatever it took to bring him in. 

The club itself stood at a very interesting point with a budget unlike anyone else’s, besides PSG, and an academy slowly starting to make noise. A structure began to take shape that enticed just about any manager to have the chance to build a club from the ground up. With a squad still in their contention window, any prospective manager saw the chance to build a dominant side and a new generation.

With City’s academy already becoming a key pipeline before he stepped through the doors, Pep tied it even more closely to the first team. Implementing his style at every level of the youth setup, while also giving coaches a chance to prove themselves this way. Ownership further backed Pep’s decision by building impressive facilities for youngsters.

Any manager dreams of having a budget like the one City gave Pep, allowing him to build teams in any way he wished. More importantly, the City’s transfer policy gave him the chance to make mistakes without being dead in the water. Constantly bringing players when others failed is a luxury afforded to few other coaches, but it became the bedrock of Pep’s teams.

Yes, City’s situation made it easier for any manager to build any side they wished, but Pep truly saw a new future there. The opportunity that Barça failed to truly give him materialized in Manchester. When the various players and City icons presented the litany of trophies won by the Spaniard during his tenure in Manchester, the enormity of his success was on full display. All that was delivered to him by his decision to create an entire club in his image.

As Pep makes his exit from both City and Prem, he leaves behind a legacy of one of the league’s greatest managers. Taking the chance to do something that no other coach really ever had the chance to do, he built a club from almost the ground up.

The Spaniard gave the club some much-needed credibility, but he also secured his legacy as an icon of the sport.