Dominic Torrent on Pep:
“It’s no surprise Guardiola is making his mark. Thoughtful football with good players always wins through.
“Like Bayern, he took City to a new level, spurring on the competition and raising the overall level of the league. Not just him, but for him too.”
For me, this is Pep’s genius. He takes a squad, analyzes what they have and what they’re lacking, builds a framework for them of how to play football, and then inserts key top class players into the gaps (or future gaps) in the system.
He is a TOTAL FOOTBALL MANAGER.
He was a player who learned his craft under a master of progressive football. He has studied the other masters and he has learned how football can be played to exploit an opponent...
If they don’t have the ball, they can’t score or hurt you...or tire you out chasing them.
Once you have the opponent on the defensive, overload and stretch them by using wide defenders as midfielders and attackers, while moving the ball around to find the holes in their defensive shell.
Whenever, wherever possible, exploit that space with a pass.
Allow world class strikers and opportunists to score.
Once you have scored, the opponent has to abandon their own defensive shell to attack you.
Identify it. Nullify it. Wait it out a little if necessary.
Then...Exploit. Exploit. Exploit.
This is why his teams are so good at scoring late game goals. Chasing the ball for 80 minutes is exhausting. While we open up a space for the ball with a simple three yard jog, the opposition now has to sprint 6-10 yards to cover the threat. We are masters at the wall pass (1-2) to simply make the other team run to cover, even if we don’t move the ball forward at all. Those 12-20 yards pay off an hour later, when we are fresh from our 3-5 yards jogs. The players we thrash are our full backs, which is why Pep spends so much time and money trying to find the FOUR we need for that job.
Pep may or may not stay here longer term, and I honestly think he may well take the mantel of BUILDING THE NEXT TEAM and possibly even receiving a stake in CFG for doing it, or even getting a team (Girona?) for himself. Either way, our focus on supplementing established world class players with the best 16-18 year old talent in the world is a recipe for continued success.
We are developing a global set of talent incubators from which MCFC can feed. We can control transfer fees, and thus FFP costs, while still providing significant financial support for the CFG teams around the world. In essence, it will be a football pyramid, where MCFC at the top source money from the PL and CL and use it to help money flow down the pyramid in return for the best talent within CFG. Those players that move up, but do not achieve consistent First Team squad status (such that they’re deemed good enough to play in Cup ties and make the bench for PL games) can then be sold in the inflated European market for £5-25M. That money then flows into the coffers of MCFC, where FFP is assured and the cycle repeats...
It is a brilliant set-up and one Pep would struggle to emulate anywhere else. The only lure for him can be countries/leagues he has not experienced and a top, top team that wants success and are willing to pay for it. His footprint is the same wherever he goes...so they’ll have to have money to spend on the players his system needs, otherwise it can’t work. I’m the current climate, I wonder how large that universe of clubs can be.
Pep has a chance to make City a global legacy club, much as United, Liverpool, and to a much lesser extent, Arsenal and Chelsea seem globally. He has begun that with his trophy hauls and the long standing records he has broken, not to mention the manner in which this team has revolutionized “football” in England.
However, the new wave of football is strength plus speed. If he can generate a team with that, with the technical ability he demands (requires), then that combination of exquisite finesse, plus speed and power, will be the pinnacle of football as we know it for years to come...placing Pep at the zenith of modern football, if not the history of football.
I believe City can give him that opportunity, if he buys into The Project and creates this club in his image, while allowing Txiki and Ferrari to manage the CFG aspects of it.
My concern is England. Will England turn him away...the media, the weather, the lifestyle. If you can have ANYTHING...or nothing and do what you want when you want...would MANCHESTER be that for you? Your wife? Your family? There are certain WAYS in which one can make it work, but this man is Catalan in his heart and the heart rules the head when safety and security are guaranteed.
I hope he stays, because the future could be oh-so-bright, but I wouldn’t place a bet on it, sadly, especially if he feels like FFP has ruined his last year and Ferran has lied to him about everything being completely above board and sound.
Watch this space, I guess...
