The man Guardiola, by Patrick Omorodion

There is an African arrives at a new place it stands on one leg proverb which says that when a chicken By so doing, it observes the new environment to observe what goes around there before it now puts the second leg down to compete with other chickens it met on ground.

That is the story of Josep Guardiola Sala, fondly called ‘Pep’. His foray into football coaching started from Barcelona B team from where he was promoted to manage the senior team in 2008.

Guardiola hit the ground running in his debut season, lead-ing Barcelona to achieve a treble, winning the La Liga, Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League in the 2008/2009 season.

In his four year tenure, 2008 – 2012, he won an astonishing 14 trophies. He popularized the possession-based tiki-taka style of football laid much earlier by Dutch legend Johan Cruyff when he was coach of Barcelona.

After dominating the Spanish La Liga in four seasons, the Spanish coach who also played for Barcelona moved to the German Bundesliga with Bayern Munich for three seasons from 2013–2016.

In Germany, he also introduced his tiki-taka style which helped him secure three consecutive Bundesliga titles and two DFB-Pokals, the German Cup. He however, was unable to add the UEFA Champions League to the laurels he won at Bayern.

In 2016, he began his sojourn in the English Premier League with Manchester City and remained there for 10 years and is set to leave this summer at the end of the season.

Before Guardiola landed in England, Sir Alex Ferguson was the dominant figure in the Premier League and remains the only coach who achieved three consecutive wins at two different times and two back to back wins.

In his 23 years at United, fondly called the red corner of Manchester (Guardiola’s City are the blue corner), Sir Alex won the EPL a record 13 times which no other coach has done till date.

Guardiola, who became a phenomenon after taking charge at the Etihad Stadium, however, redefined English football.

He guided City to multiple Premier League titles, a historic domestic treble, and the club’s first-ever UEFA Champions League trophy.

His first season in the English Premier League was the 2016–17 campaign managing Manchester City and was the only season of his managerial career where he did not win a major trophy. His Man City finished 3rd with 78 points, trailing champions Chelsea and runners-up Tottenham Hotspur.

However, he took one step above Sir Alex by winning the Premier League four times in a row after his attempt to make his first hat-trick was punctuated by Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool in the 2019-2020 season.

Klopp couldn’t maintain the tempo like Ferguson and Guardiola did and so Guardiola and City returned as champions again for the record double back-to-back in 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023 and then 2023-2024.

Ironically, what could have been Guardiola’s fifth consecutive EPL victory in the 2024-2025 season was again punctuated by Liverpool, this time steered by a Dutch, Arend (known as Arne) Martin Slot who took over from Klopp, a German.

At a point In the Premier League, the fear of Guardiola was the beginning of wisdom. Though Man City struggled all through the 2025/2026 season which comes to an end today, that at a point the gap between them and Arsenal was so wide that even Guardiola himself had given up any hope of placing among the top four, the Gunners’ fans were still not comfortable with their lead, believing that with Pep, it is never over until it was over.

This followed their experience in three consecutive seasons when Arsenal led but still cracked towards the end, losing grip and playing second fiddle to Man City and Liverpool.

Some Arsenal fans who had waited for 22 years since they last won the Premier League in 2004, swore and cursed Mikel Arteta when Man City caught up with Arsenal on the table, calling for his sack.

Arteta, mentored by Guardiola was definitely under pressure but remained calm, believing that nothing should derailed his managerial career.

As Guardiola bows out at the end of the season today, it would be memorable to state that he hit the ground running on his debut with Man City.

He gave Arsenal a good fight. But for the shared points with a rugged Bournemouth, the final matches today would have generated a lot of suspense because Arsenal would have played Crystal Palace with all their might hoping not to drop points.

While Palace would today be mounting a guard of honour for the champions who are still celebrating the deserved win, tension would shift to the bottom side of the table where Tottenham Hotspur who placed second behind Chelsea and pushed Guardiola’s Man City to third in the 2016-2017 season would be battling to avoid the drop zone when the face West Ham United.

To avoid relegation, Tottenham, the former team of Harry Kane, who are on 38 points and a plus -10 goals difference, only need a draw against West Ham who have 36 points with a -22 goals difference.

Tottenham, a North London side may be supported by fans of their neighbours, Arsenal to ensure they remain in the Premier League as they have never been relegated since EPL was introduced in 1992.

They have only suffered relegation four times since they were founded, and that was in 1914-1915,1927-1928,1934-1935 and 1976-1977.

So while SportsGuard congratulates Arteta and Arsenal for breaking a 22-year jinx, we wish Tottenham and West Ham good luck and may the better side survive the drop today.

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المصدر: Vanguard (NG)