Pep documentary on BBC

Coatigan said:
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.
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After my little gripe I still thought it was a really good documentary although a little bit light on the City bit.
 
eastmanc said:
After my little gripe I still thought it was a really good documentary although a little bit light on the City bit.
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It was light on City, but mot bad overall. However i knew most of his background after reading The Evolution of Pep Guadiola, Peps City etc. So many parallels at City with the Barca years. But agree someone viewing without background knowledge of Pep would think he hadn't achieved that much at City....

(On a purely shallow note, slight digression. On my insta I keep getting the reel of Pep catwalk modelling when he was 20. He was absolutely smoking hot, mind he's still easy on the eye now, as well as being a genius, and bald fraud in equal measure ..... :-) ).
 
Pep Guardiola Manchester City.jpg

I've only just got round to watching it, & I think it's a brilliant tribute to Baldy The Great!

I loved seeing the old footage & photos of him as a boy in Barcelona, & learning about his obsession with detail from being young, especially the references to the quick side to side movements in the game of handball. Speaking to handball coaches about their reasoning behind their tactics gave a pointer as to what was to come with our genius.

I've had experience of the uber-talented Billy Big Bollocks of the outfit & his minions being fucked off by a new no nonsense boss. It seems counterintuitive, but the times I've seen it done, it worked because it removed the toxicity from the environment & also elevated those outside the spotlight into positions of responsibility, where they rose to the challenge, becoming better than their predecessors.

I loved Noel Gallagher lamenting that City were so shit in 2005, that Pep went to finish his playing career in Mexico instead! Lol :-)

It meant so much to me to hear Pep say in today's presser that he fully empathises with Xavi's plight at Barça, & that managing in Spain is far far more difficult in the PL.

He said he's happy here because he's got everything a manager could wish for in a supportive owner & board, with a squad of excellent players who listen & give him their all.

Boys & girls, we've got one special dude at our club. We're seeing a legend in real time, the likes of which I doubt football will ever see again at this level.

I never thought I'd live to see my Manchester City like this. Shit like this is normally in the history books or happens to someone else, as I look on enviously.

We are truly, truly blessed! )(
 
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It was OK. Not as good as I was hoping for; as others have said, it was pretty "light" on his tenure here. However, I guess it was trying to show what formed him rather than the present as such.

Should have had @Ric on to explain what he means to us City fans, rather than some of the others.

That's if he has sobered up since the MOTD appearance ;-)
 
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urban genie said:
His record cannot be denied but I would. put it. down to more motivational slills, sometimes luck, formation of the premier league, the red scouse dynasty demise as a contender and fear through bullying players and media to never criticise him once on a roll (afterall the first 2 seasons he was a sitting duck woth the press and the rags were awful).

Did he bring in new fitness and diet ideas?
Did he revolutionise playing styles and how other teams across the pyramid?
could you really say what style of football they even played under him as a legacy?

His best skills were making some bang average players believe they were good enough and become champions, motivate teams into solid units and control narratives.

One of the best man managers the league has seen but a pioneer that changed it? I would say only Wenger (to a degree) and Pep could claim that.
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I agree

In terms of the football the rags played, there was nothing really unique or forward thinking about it. He was just a good man manager Slur Alex, and that's a real skill in itself, but the football itself wasn't anything different to what anyone else was doing.

Pep has taken football to a place nobody had seen in England, and I also do think Wenger played his role too.

Mourinho did bring something in incredible efficiency. Conceding just 15 goals in a season is absolutely ridiculous, and they did score more than some people would have you believe. But it was never really a style that was bought into by anyone, unlike Pep which has completely changed the way kids are being taught about the game.

Nobody ever used Ferguson's teams to study the philosophical and tactical innovations and blueprints to playing much better football. There's nothing to learn from his football. That's really why the likes of Pep destroyed him in finals, or even Mourinho turning up to the swamp and doing a number on them with Porto. Ferguson ran into these younger guys that had could man manage just as well, but they'd developed a much stronger blueprint on now they wanted their teams to play for them and could implement it over managers like Ferguson for the most part.
 
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