Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola says he was convinced to sign a new contract at Manchester City by his bosses despite having done what he came to English football to do. His City team set several records as they won the Premier League with 100 points before becoming the first team in a decade to retain the title as they picked up a domestic clean sweep the following year – all playing a style of football that many critics argued could not succeed in this country. As part of a lengthy press conference in which he stressed that the managers are not the architects of a club’s success, the Catalan explained how he was pushed into bettering himself and the team.
Pep Guardiola said: “I would tell you if I believed the reason why was me. I would be grateful to say that the reason behind this success is because I’m so handsome and that’s the reason why. It’s not like that. It’s the players. The big clubs have incredible success, in South America and Europe, and it’s due to the quality of the players, the mentality. The manager can seduce them to have this mentality a little bit but the organisation itself too – our chairman does not want one day of sleep, doesn’t want to rest. He pushes me, like I have to push my CEO and the CEO pushes me, and Txiki [Begiristain] – we push each other to be better and better, and still I have the feeling when we finished the game against Gladbach maybe it will not be enough to reach the last stages of the Champions League if we don’t improve in some departments. It’s the only way to getting better. If I did not feel we could get better, I would not have extended my contract here. 100 per cent. If I extend my contract, it’s because they convinced me for different issues and still that we can do better. If not, the team would be over. I came here to win in England and we have done it already – but I did it. I came to play in a special way and I did it. The job is done, but still I have the feeling we can do better. Still I feel we can win more and make our fans proud. We can do it. This is important. For a short time, you can do it without top players – half a season, one season, you can do it – but sustaining for a long time, in an incredible hard tough organisation, that support their managers a lot so the journalists and the players know he will not be sacked, this is so important. And after that, [you need] top quality players. I never in my 12 years as manager scored a goal, never. I never saved a penalty, never. The artists are the players. All we can do is help them, knowing that doing the same, you can lose. Sometimes people forget the opponents are good too.”
For a long time, Guardiola indicated that he would have a cut-off point when he would no longer be a football manager, observing stalwarts such as Roy Hodgson, Carlo Ancelotti and David Moyes with admiration for going on for more seasons than he imagined he would. However, the City coach has hinted more recently that he could extend his planned career and spoke glowingly ahead of the West Ham game about the calmness that the trio of experienced Premier League coaches have.
Pep Guardiola added: “Sometimes I shout at my players and I should not do it but I cannot control it. When I was a player it was like this too, it’s the way I am. I don’t want to be fake to myself. Sometimes I’m more calm. It depends. I do it because I love my job, I enjoy being a manager and I want to be better. I want to try to reach the team every day to do it better. I demand a lot of myself, and I have to defend my team. I don’t want to feel weak. I have to be there – they have to know that I am not resting. Now we have two days with the travel, they have six days. Is it an excuse? No way. It’s a challenge, it’s a challenge. The Champions League teams react in this way. The Premier League gives us a challenge and we have to accept it. We cannot use it as an excuse. It’s a privilege to have just two days to win another game and then another one. The people who believe ‘it’s only two days’ cannot be at this club. If we have to play one day later, then we will. It’s not tiredness. This is the demands on myself and I demand it of my players too. They have to (follow me) – when they arrive they have to know we have to win. If you do not accept it you cannot be there. I want us to be extremely happy when we win and when we lose extremely sad. The day after, calm again and ready. That’s the only way at the big clubs and this is what we want to be.”
