Patrick Geary

There are two ways of looking at this really. If you just look at it in terms of trophies, it's remarkable. 20 trophies over the course of a decade. Manchester City winning their first ever treble. That's the FA Cup, the Premier League and the Champions League in the 2022-23 season. So that in itself is remarkable. But I think Guardiola goes beyond just weighing it in silver. It's about style as well. Guardiola's style of play means possessing the ball, being comfortable with the ball. And that applies to all the players, even the goalkeeper.

That style of football has gone beyond just Manchester City. It's become the prevailing philosophy in much of English football. That goes even beyond the Premier League, down to lower levels. You'll see the goalkeeper passing out from the back. It sometimes alarms some fans watching. It's quite a risky style of play. But that is what Pep Guardiola has brought into English football, and it makes him such a significant figure.

On vaikea arvioida hänet, koska ihmisille on kaviattit, joita ihmisille voi käyttää. Manchester Cityn kautta on ollut valtavaa kasvua, noin 1 miljardia. Meillä on edelleen 115 asiaa, joita he sopivat finanssien osalta.

Mutta Guardiola's success and the way that he has achieved it surely puts him up there with some of the greatest managers in English football. And he's also reinvented his team over that period, a bit like Sir Alex Ferguson did with Manchester United. It's not just one team, he's...

He has kept rotating the players, he's kept bringing new players through, he's used the academy at times. So that I think would place him up there with some of the most significant managers that we have seen in English and European football. He's of course won trophies now in Spain, Germany and England. So he's achieved pretty much all there is to achieve as a manager. And I think for that reason he would have to be placed up in the very highest company. And do we know what next for him then?

It's difficult to know with Guardiola. He is his own man. I think after he left Barcelona he just took a year out of the game of sabbatical. So he may do that. I think he's spoken about potentially being an international manager in the future. Perhaps that would come up. But he's a man who enjoys things beyond football. He likes music. He likes cooking. He's spoken about perhaps wanting a bit more time to do some of that. And of course being a top class manager for so long does take a lot out of you. It's quite a demanding job.