- Guardiola’s colossal impact on English football can be seen at all levels of game
- But clubs now appear to be favouring coaches who can imitate his style
- Sunday league, grassroots, pub football… how Pep’s influence has trickled down the pyramid – Listen to the It’s All Kicking Off podcast
Pep Guardiola‘s fingerprints are all over English football nowadays.
From the Premier League to Sunday morning cloggers on park pitches, everybody is trying to play out from the back, invert their full backs and strangle the opposition into submission through possession.
No coach in the modern era has been as influential on how the national sport is played. Teams want to be ‘Man City lite’ for the simple reason they’re so successful.
It’s likely Guardiola will only spend one more season at the Etihad but his influence will endure. He has proven consistently that his way is the best way to win football matches.
But it isn’t just that – the ‘Guardiola effect’ is now rippling down into how leading clubs recruit their managers. The Guardiola ‘coaching tree’ is coming into full blossom.
And why not? Guardiola’s track record speaks for itself.
His City team have dominated English football in recent years with six Premier League title wins, two FA Cups, four League Cups, a Champions League crown and a FIFA Club World Cup.
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They have come as close to footballing perfection as it’s possible to come in a league which likes to portray itself as the toughest in the world.
So any coach who has orbited Pep’s shining star is likely to be in hot demand.
Despite the likes of Thomas Tuchel, Jose Mourinho, Massimiliano Allegri and Mauricio Pochettino being on the managerial market, clubs are increasingly gravitating to so-called ‘Diet Peps’ in the hope the magic has rubbed off.
Of course, Chelsea have been around the block with most of those other coaches but their choice of Enzo Maresca, who held various coaching roles under Guardiola at City, is still instructive.
Like Guardiola, Maresca reveres the work of Johan Cruyff, considers football as essentially chess played on grass, and takes a literal hands-on approach in training sessions.
When the 44-year-old arrived at Leicester City last year, he demanded the players buy in to his methods completely or get out.
Leicester’s style of football didn’t always win full favour with the fans but the players knew precisely what they were doing and ultimately it got them back to the Premier League.
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Patience is notoriously in short supply at Stamford Bridge so it will be fascinating to see the reaction to Chelsea’s painstaking build-up play under the Italian.
But having dispensed with Tuchel, Graham Potter and Pochettino in quick order, the Chelsea hierarchy appear to have decided imitation is the sincerest form of flattery when chasing Guardiola’s City.
Likewise at Bayern Munich, where a number of prominent coaches turned them down before they settled on former City captain Vincent Kompany as Tuchel’s replacement.
The Belgian’s managerial CV isn’t sparkling – he finished fourth and third in the Belgian league with Anderlecht, then guided Burnley straight back into the Premier League.
Once there, the Clarets looked woefully out of their depth as Kompany proved uncompromising when it came to the style that was successful in the Championship but ill-advised in the top-flight.
They won just five of 38 games but that seemingly doesn’t matter to Bayern. What’s important is that Kompany had a playing style attractive to them and stuck to it.
The ironic thing is that had Kompany switched to something a little more pragmatic and kept Burnley in the Premier League through dull but effective football, Bayern wouldn’t have come calling.
They even admitted to reaching out to Guardiola to canvas his thoughts on his former captain.
Former chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said: ‘Guardiola was also helping us with Kompany, he spoke very highly of Vincent as a talented coach.
‘Pep knows Vincent well and his opinion was really appreciated.’
So a nod of approval from Guardiola – a former Bayern boss of course – helped seal the deal. Good due diligence, no doubt, but another sign of Guardiola’s influence.
Elsewhere, other Pep disciples are doing very well. His former assistant Mikel Arteta has made Arsenal the one team that looks capable of stealing City’s Premier League crown.
Arteta’s brand of football isn’t full-strength, undiluted Pep but you can certainly spot where he’s borrowed elements from his old mentor.
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If Arsenal make it third time lucky and win the title ahead of City next season, it will be a rare example of apprentice beating master.
Then there’s Xabi Alonso, who played under Guardiola at Bayern between 2014 and 2016, towards the end of an illustrious career and just as he was considering coaching.
Alonso has just led Bayer Leverkusen to an incredible unbeaten season in Germany, winning the league and cup, while also reaching the Europa League final.
Indeed, the only coach to have previously crossed paths with Guardiola not in favour seems to be Erik ten Hag at Manchester United.
Ten Hag was in charge of Bayern Munich’s second team while Guardiola led the main side and the Dutchman relished their tactical chats.
Despite masterminding last weekend’s FA Cup win over City, Ten Hag’s Old Trafford future remains up in the air.
If he does depart, that past association with Guardiola may well put Ten Hag in demand.
After all, the attitude among clubs right now seems to be ‘if we can’t have the real Pep, then get the next best thing.’