Pep documentary on BBC

Eccles Blue said:
I just kept thinking: I’m so proud he is our Manager and such a brilliant man.

I also felt I got to appreciate Txiki Begiristain more than I have before. I’ve always been a bit, ok he’s part of City’s hierarchy but that’s it. Now I’m thinking mmm maybe he does get City and is thinking about our club not just himself. :-)
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Indeed…I think a lot of us forget & need to be reminded regardless how we view these two but without Txiki & perhaps to a lesser extent Soriano there is no Pep at City.

They were instrumental in bringing him here regardless of our financial backing. Also got to give thanks to the Sheik & Khaldoon in having the foresight in hiring these two in order to provide the framework & environment for Pep to not only come here but also thrive which seemed he lacked at Bayern.

I also think we were fortunate to have got him at the right time where he had matured as a coach & as a person.
 
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bluethrunthru said:
shows how a coach/manager is made and moulded - its a complex recipe a special brew and we are lucky to have him

But as some rag once said "he brings no guarantee of success "
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That was a particularly fat and stupid one. Can you imagine standing out as more stupid than the rest. Well done Howson you`re a celebrity for your stupidity.
 
Hopefully now the bitters will understand that Pep wasn’t given everything on a plate, and he worked under great pressure to succeed.. He has a true alliance with Txiki which will never be broken, and has trusted and believed in Pep since day one..
 
Seeing the doc a couple of days ago and Xavi’s comments yesterday about the toxic nature of Barca - really not enough is made of Pep, the greatest coach in history, being forced out, and for what? The egos of a bunch of suits!

Was laughing all the way through the doc at their stupidity - and pinching myself at our luck!
 
Inter Me Nan said:
Came across as very bitter didn't he Winter?
Fancy being asked to contribute on a documentary about one of the greatest managers ever and you're playing City bingo!
Sad ****.
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Funny how he only came across as bitter when it came discussing Pep at City. And not when he was commenting on his time at Barcelona and Bayern.

They managed to stay away from mentioning the charges though which was a surprise, so take what we can.
 
eastmanc said:
My only gripe was that the Barca stuff was very in depth and the City part seemed to by scimmed over slightly.
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I felt that too. Pretty much half of it is on his time at Barcelona. A quarter on Bayern and a quarter on City.

And even that is split evenly with a lot of it on his first year that 'didn't go to plan'. And then it clicked and he won lots.. but not the champions league! And then he won that too, the end.

I enjoyed all of it, but felt by the time it finally got to the City bit, which let's face it I was mostly keen to see, it was like they ran out of time and squeezed it in to what was left of the show.

I was keen to see it, not just as a blue, or part of the wider PL/UK audience, but also more generally as there have been a number of documentaries on Barcelona and his time there previously, but little on his time at City. Given he'd been here twice as long as either at Barca and Bayern, longer than at both combined, won more, and had plenty of media exchanges, the City time of tge documentary felt a bit disproportionate.

I get that the first bit gives a bit of background, and will always need to be longer. But beyond that I felt the depth of analysis and storytelling was weighted to the Barcelona years. More footage, more real life quotes and extracts etc. Then when it came to City, mostly snippets of third party people saying some shit they thought, and that was it.

All that aside, the man is a genius and a character, and it is great he is here.

One of the things that maybe went unnoticed but stuck with me is the somewhat throwaway comment about lotalty. He is a very loyal person by nature and really values loyalty. Well he can get it here, and we should appreciate his. Hopefully for a long time.
 
Very interesting and very enjoyable. When Pep leaves part of City will die forever. Anyway we can always get the gundog in.
 
Ysabel 123 said:
The guy was the last manager to stop one of the Old Firm from winning the Scottish League along with being the last manager to beat Real Madrid in a European Final (that was 39 years ago). He then went on to win 13 league titles over 24 years with united!

I hate the **** but credit where's it due hey!
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Nah. Fuck him.
 
Asa's left peg said:
It was an interesting programme and comparison. The two best teams and both Pep teams. Barca with outstanding individuals playing as a team and us with less accepted (KBD apart) players sweeping all aside. I think our/his 2018 was more like Barca, but I don't know whether they came up against 6-5-0 formations like we do all the time. It could be, of course, that our players are not lauded as much as they were/are and we are the second coming, so to speak.

Were they better individuals Buscetts/Rodri - KDB/Messi - Bernie/Iniesta / Puyol-Dias / Stones-Pique etc. Were our fullback better? They didn't have a Harland (didn't need one obv).

I'm left with the feeling that they were the better team and I don't really know why. Maybe I've been conditioned to think that by the reporting over the years. One point the programme made was that, with Bayern, he made a mistake, not too dissimilar to the Chelsea CL final and I believe he was more pragmatic against Inter, ensuring the win.
If we are fortunate enough to reach the final again - whoever it is we face - I think we have to blow them away like Barca did to the Rags, to ranked better than them.
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bobbyowenquiff said:
The difference is that Barca had the best player of all time in Messi. He elevated that team to a cult status. I am sure Pep's current City team would have dominated in Spain in that era and perhaps also won a few Champions Leagues but you can't underestimate the sheer charisma of Messi. If we win back-to-back trebles I may have to change my position though.
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The comparisons with his Barcelona team are always interesting to me. I watched a lot of them in those years, because to a neutral they were anything between really intriguing and outright irresistible. And I would have always thought or argued that they under Pep were the better side overall than us under Pep.

Up until last year. Which even before we won any of the treble, was the first time I genuinely felt we were the stronger side and played better football. This year, not so much, but it is still there.

But for all the comparisons and all that Barcelona had that we do not (messi for one), one difference people seem to overlook is, that they just did not have so many refereeing margins go against them. That is not me arguing conspiracy, injustice or anything like that btw, that is just my observation of having watched both. If anything, at times I thought Barcelona were quite lucky with some calls. The Chelsea semi final for one which I actually enjoyed seeing them win, but had sympathy for the chavs.

Whereas I think some of ours cost us a couple extra trophies. IMO Pep wouldn't have gone trophyless in his first season if we hadn't been robbed of a goal at Wembley against arsenal. I'm convinced we would have won the full quadruple (+shield) had we not been robbed against spurs. And as such won the CL much sooner. The refereeing against Liverpool in the CL, his Barcelona team never had to overcome that from everything I've seen. And the year Liverpool ran away with it, who knows how much closer it might have been were it not for the early part of the season var bedding in, the big points dropped in the games vs spurs and head to head etc.

I'm sure the old cliché is valid and they all balance out, and we have had our fair share of decisions fall in our favour too, that is not the point I am making. It is more that his Barcelona team were more fortunate, when it really mattered, with the margins than we sometimes were.
 
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