Will Pep Guardiola Succeed at Manchester City

The English premier league is the most watched league in the world and arguably the most competitive league in the world. The Premier League is a corporation in which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders. Seasons run from August to May. Teams play 38 matches each (playing each team in the league twice, home and away), totaling 380 matches in the season. The English premier league commonly referred to as ” premiership” have 5 clear league contenders which include Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool with teams like Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester city which can be surprise winners. In the premiership, resources are evenly distributed among clubs based of performances which means all the 20 teams can afford quality players. Each premier league club is guaranteed $100,000 dollars at the end of the season due to TV rights deal estimated about $5.1 billion.

In this article SportsGoogly is varying the chances of Pep Guardiola if he can succeed in the English premier. Pep Guardiola is a manager who have coached on two clubs and that is Barcelona and Bayern Munich. During his days with both clubs he succeeded by winning important trophies for both clubs. Pep Guardiola is a manager who have never being sacked by a club. Many are those who believe that Guardiola have only coached it leagues were he did not have enough competitions from clubs. And leagues that lacked even distribution of resources and also lack player quality. Clear example was in the La Liga that during his time it was on Real Madrid that could mount a challenge at him so if Real Madrid are in crisis it means he will be on holiday. Similar happened in Germany where it is only Dortmund that can mount a title challenge against him. A lot of soccer pundits believed that Pep Guardiola have coached only favorites which have less competition.

On 1 February 2016 Manchester City signed Pep Guardiola on a 3 years contract to manage the English from the beginning of the 2016-17 season. The English premier league is the biggest challenge for Pep Guardiola. If Pep Guardiola is able to succeed in England, he will be the greatest club coach ever in footballing history. Surrounded by experienced coaches like Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp, Claudio Ranieri, Ronald Koeman, David Moyes, Mark Hughes, Tony Pulis, Mauricio Pochettino the list goes on and on.

The question is, will Pep Guardiola succeed massively with Manchester City like with Barcelona and Bayern Munich?

Brief Career Breakdown of Pep Guardiola

Josep Guardiola Sala was born on 18 January 1971 in Santpedor, Spain. Guardiola was a professional footballer who played for for Barcelona, AS Roma and Brescia etc. Guardiola joined La Masia at the age of 13 and rose through the ranks at the youth academy of Barcelona for six years. Guardiola was promoted to the Barcelona B team where then coach of Barcelona Yohan Cruyff spotted him and called him up into the Barcelona at the age of 20 in 1990. Guardiola was a defensive midfielder who played in front of the center backs. He made 263 appearances for Barcelona and scored 6 goals a defensive midfielder and also made 57 appearances for the Spanish national team and scoring 5 goals.

Trophies Won as a Player: La Liga 6 trophies, Copa Del Ray 2 trophies, Spanish Super Cup 4 trophies, European cup one trophy, UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup one trophy, UEFA Super Cup 2 trophies and 1992 Olympic gold medalist.

Guardiola stared his coaching career on 21 June 2007 at Barcelona B as the head coach. He coached Barcelona B until he was appointed to replace Frank Rijkaard after the 2007-08 season. At Barcelona B, Guardiola guided his team to qualify for the Spanish Segunda B(second tier league is Spain)

Guardiola took charge of the first team in the 2008/09 season which he made a bold decision by offloading some exiting senior players which included Ronaldinho, Deco, Samuel Eto’o, Gianluca Zambrotta, Giovani dos Santos, Yaya Toure and Edmílson. After ofloading such players, he promoted majority of the Barcalona B players into the first team.

Guardiola successfully coached FC Barcelona from 2008 up-till he announced that he wanted to go on a sabbatical leave to relax and concentrate on his personal life. Guardiola resigned from Barcelona and lift for New York to recover and cool down from the stress of football.

Performance at Barcelona:

Guardiola guided Barcelona into 152 La Liga matches as manager and he won 116, drew 25 and lost 11 scoring 412 goals in the process. Guardiola’s winning percentage at Barcelona was 76%

Trophies:

• UEFA Champions League: 2 trophies won(2008–09, 2010–11)
• UEFA Super Cup: 2 trophies won(2009, 2011)
• FIFA Club World Cup: 2 trophies won(2009, 2011)
• La Liga: 3 trophies won(2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11)
• Copa Del Rey: 2 trophies won(2008–09, 2011–12)
• Spanish Super Cup: 3 trophies won(2009, 2010, 2011)

On 16 January 2013 Bayern Munich announced that they have signed a pre-contract with Pep Guardiola to take over the mantle from the retiring Jupp Heynckes as manager. Guardiola coached Bayern Munich for 3 seasons which he won a lot of honors. On 20 December Pep announced that he will not extend his contract for Bayern Munich and will leave have his contract has ended.

Performance at Bayern:

Pep Guardiola managed 102 league games for Bayern Munich which he won 82, drew 11 and lost 9 and scoring 254 goals with 58 conceded. Guadiola’s winning rate at Bayern Munich was 80%

Trophies:

FIFA Club World Cup: Won it in 2013

UFA Super Cup: Won it in 2013

Bundesliga: 3 trophies won (2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16) in 3 seasons

German Cup: 2 trophies won (2013–14, 2015–16)

Pep Guardiola have settled downed in the premiership very well with absolute precision. 6 premier league games 6 victories which was a record set by former Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti, who also started the season with 5 games and 6 victories. If Pep Guardiola is able to win against Tottenham hotspur then he is going to set a new record in the premiership with 7 league games and 7 victories. Manchester City have transformed immensely under the mighty hand of Guardiola, the 4-2-3-1 formation so far is invincible to fellow premier league coaches with Jose Mourinho feeling the rough in the Manchester derby.

In England with technology and the resources available to the elite coaches,they do not find it difficult to find an antidote to a poisonous formation like what Pep Guardiola have deployed. For Pep Guardiola to succeed in England he needs to continually vary is tactics in the games.

In conclusion, Pep Guardiola can succeed in England but he cannot achieve on the success on a large scale as he have done in England and Germany. Pep Guardiola can win the English premier league but cannot win the champions league this season. The journey will not be easy for Pep Guardiola as he have started because a lot of challenges and difficult games awaits him. Manchester City have engaged the right manager for their future champions league ambitions.