An architect who redefined football - why Guardiola stands apart

ByGuillem BalagueBBC Sport ColumnistPublished34 minutes agoManchester City won 17 major trophies in 10 seasons under Pep Guardiola. Guardiola has won 41 trophies in total across his 17-year managerial career. The legendary Sir Alex Ferguson got to 49 - but in 39 years. And Guardiola has won the league 12 times in those 17 years. Compare that to Carlo Ancelotti, who, with more years in the profession, has 'just' six league titles - although two more Champions Leagues than Guardiola. The numbers give you a glimpse of who should be considered the greatest. And yet winning - at the highest level, for long enough - is only the entry fee. Ferguson won a lot. So did Bob Paisley, Bill Shankly, Jose Mourinho and Ancelotti. Zinedine Zidane too in a short period. Mircea Lucescu, Valeriy Lobanovskyi, Ottmar Hitzfeld, Jock Stein, Arsene Wenger, Jurgen Klopp - they all won plenty of titles. The question is not whether Guardiola belongs in that company. Obviously he does. The question is whether he stands apart from it - and why. Man City gearing up for 'significant summer of change' Published3 days agoGuardiola's legacy of genius will echo through all ages for years to come Published1 day agoImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Pep Guardiola is leaving Man City after 10 years at the club To understand Guardiola's true weight in football history, consider this. His fingerprints are on everything. It really started with a sentence. When Joan Laporta was weighing up whether to give Guardiola the Barcelona job, the president looked at him and said: "No tens els collons." ("You don't have the balls.") His only managerial honour at the time was the Spanish third division. Laporta gave him the job. Football changed. Guardiola changed it. By the way, can Pep do it on bad pitches, with small crowds, with a small team? He did it in the third division with Barcelona B, with kids. Another tick. The school he came from had two Dutch headmasters: Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff. Later on came Louis van Gaal. At Barcelona, Guardiola turned their ideas into the most complete club side the world had seen. At Bayern Munich he pushed deeper into positional play, leaving ideas German football is still working through today. Then came the hardest test he could find: England. The home of football. The place where received wisdom said his style - all the ball, all that control and all that demand for space and movement - would not survive. The queue of people predicting failure was long. They were wrong, but here is what makes his time as a club manager unique. Guardiola has changed how football is played across three phases of the game. If you follow the most common framework for analysing football with the ball - building from the back, transition through the middle, play around the box, and the finishing of the action - he has systematically revolutionised the first three. The fourth phase, the finishing itself, is one football culture is not yet ready to absorb in the way he envisions. But no manager in history has done what he has done with the first three. Now others can come and continue the work. And at City specifically, he has built not one great team but three. The first: a beautiful side that won league titles playing football that made neutrals stop and watch. The second: a battle-hardened version with four centre-backs in the back four and a centre-forward - Erling Haaland - who broke every record in sight. The third: this current iteration, still evolving, still capable of winning domestic trophies. Going back to win with each new generation of players is one of the most significant marks of a truly great manager. Figure caption, The games which defined Guardiola's six league titles There is also this. His most trusted lieutenants didn't just leave his staff to take other jobs. They came back. And others that know him or got to know him studied closely his collection of solutions. Mikel Arteta. Vincent Kompany. Enzo Maresca. Roberto de Zerbi. Luis Enrique. And more. Some of them sat in his meetings, absorbed his methods, and then returned to compete against him. There is no historical parallel for this. Ferguson had rivals. Paisley had rivals. But Guardiola has had to fight for titles against managers he himself educated. And still he adapted, still he evolved - and yes, still he won. Is that a different category of greatness? It would be dishonest not to mention the Champions League. Just one European Cup in 10 years at City - albeit their first - shows the competition's difficulty, but also suggests there are heights the club must still reach to win it more regularly. That caveat belongs in the argument. Guardiola himself would insist on it. But now consider the following. Changing the game is one thing. Changing how people understand the game is something else entirely. Football is a conservative sport. It resists change instinctively. Supporters who have followed the game for decades will t

An architect who redefined football - why Guardiola stands apart

Key takeaways

Also covered by

An architect who redefined football - why Guardiola stands apart

Key takeaways

Also covered by

More in sports