supercity88
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 9 Aug 2009
- Messages
- 13,516
That's a truly brilliant interview.
Whilst Pep might be a Barca man, I’ve no doubt he can become a blue. Cruyff was an Ajax man that went to Barcelona and passed on his knowledge and philosophy of football. Pep idolised him and recognises that without him he wouldn’t have had the career he had, playing wise or managerial wise. His time at Bayern was a success but didn’t deliver CL glory and a club of Bayern’s size and stature makes that look a real disappointment. It cannot be argued that he made them an exciting team and improved them though. Three consecutive semi-finals is impressive and though they didn’t make it all the way they were a brilliant side.
He’s now got the opportunity to do with City, what Cruyff did with Barcelona. Barcelona have of course been a huge club for decades, but their first European success was under Cruyff in 1992. They won two more under Pep and now have won it 5 times. The style of play instilled in their academy has arguably led to Spain being the best team in the World between 2008-2012 and not many teams could get near them, they couldn’t get the ball for starters.
City remain on the start of their journey when you compare us to the likes of Barcelona. Our academy has been transformed and Pep can ensure it finally becomes a conveyor belt to our first team. He’s already improved individual players and our all round game in the little time we’ve had with him. He could be our Cruyff and in that regard I think there’s potential for him to develop a deeper love of our club than many might expect. He will never put himself on the same level as Cruyff and perhaps rightly so, but it’s early days in his managerial career and he’s already tried things that Cruyff hadn’t and he’s shown to be an incredible man manager and tactician in an age where often it’s one or the other. He puts his success down to Cruyff but potentially players like Raheem Sterling, John Stones, Aleix Garcia, Brahim Diaz could be saying in 20/30 years time the exact same thing about Pep. Let’s hope so.
Whilst Pep might be a Barca man, I’ve no doubt he can become a blue. Cruyff was an Ajax man that went to Barcelona and passed on his knowledge and philosophy of football. Pep idolised him and recognises that without him he wouldn’t have had the career he had, playing wise or managerial wise. His time at Bayern was a success but didn’t deliver CL glory and a club of Bayern’s size and stature makes that look a real disappointment. It cannot be argued that he made them an exciting team and improved them though. Three consecutive semi-finals is impressive and though they didn’t make it all the way they were a brilliant side.
He’s now got the opportunity to do with City, what Cruyff did with Barcelona. Barcelona have of course been a huge club for decades, but their first European success was under Cruyff in 1992. They won two more under Pep and now have won it 5 times. The style of play instilled in their academy has arguably led to Spain being the best team in the World between 2008-2012 and not many teams could get near them, they couldn’t get the ball for starters.
City remain on the start of their journey when you compare us to the likes of Barcelona. Our academy has been transformed and Pep can ensure it finally becomes a conveyor belt to our first team. He’s already improved individual players and our all round game in the little time we’ve had with him. He could be our Cruyff and in that regard I think there’s potential for him to develop a deeper love of our club than many might expect. He will never put himself on the same level as Cruyff and perhaps rightly so, but it’s early days in his managerial career and he’s already tried things that Cruyff hadn’t and he’s shown to be an incredible man manager and tactician in an age where often it’s one or the other. He puts his success down to Cruyff but potentially players like Raheem Sterling, John Stones, Aleix Garcia, Brahim Diaz could be saying in 20/30 years time the exact same thing about Pep. Let’s hope so.
