There will be some hoarse voices at the Treble parade in Manchester on Monday – and during the days of celebration that could stretch into weeks and possibly months (knowing Jack Grealish).
Yet none will be more gravelled than Manchester City’s manager Pep Guardiola. Guardiola talks in hushed tones at the best of times, his vocal cords in a state of almost perpetual strain due to the animated and exuberant way he makes demands of his players in training and during matches.
His wonderful contradictions played out in the strangely giant technical area on the touchline of the Ataturk Olympic Stadium pitch on Saturday night.
One moment Guardiola was calling for calm, ordering his players to relax, gesturing emphatically with flat palms. The next exploding in frustration at a misplaced pass, a failure to close down, one piece of his meticulous puzzle shifting fractionally out of place for a few seconds.
One moment Guardiola calling for calm, the next on his hands and knees on the grass, floored by the mistake that let Lautaro Martinez in and almost – almost – led to Inter taking the lead and potentially crushing City’s Treble dreams.
Now is the time for partying, revelling in the moment, allowing a truly great achievement to sink in properly. But then what? All great squads must come and go. So, too, great managers. What next for Guardiola, without whom perhaps this Treble never happens?
If his greatness was not already confirmed prior to becoming the first manager to win the Treble with two different clubs his status was indelibly cemented with the final club trophy to elude not only Guardiola at City but the club itself. It had been the only prize that Abu Dhabi’s billions had been unable to buy.
Not long after the final whistle blew in Istanbul, City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak was quick to point out to Guardiola that next year’s Champions League final is in London. Guardiola’s reply was not suitable for print.
“I need a break,” Guardiola said later, sounding as though a heavy, exhausting weight had finally been lifted from his shoulders. But there were the hints of contradiction again, the Catalan pointing out that after a first Champions League trophy “we are just 13 behind Real Madrid”. Talk of needing a rest, of calm, but also hunting down the greatest team in the competition’s history.
Now Guardiola has won the Treble in England to match Sir Alex Ferguson’s achievement at Manchester United there is little the great Scot now holds over him. Guardiola has won league titles and domestic cups in three of the four major leagues – the Premier League, La Liga and Bundesliga. An achievement far beyond Ferguson’s own.
And Guardiola has tactically reshaped the game in a way that Ferguson, for all his great strengths, did not.
Yet the thing that still sets Ferguson apart is the longevity. Almost 27 years at Manchester United, building serially-winning squads over and over again.
It was thought it could not be done in the modern era but a new dynasty in the colours of the blue half of Manchester is there for the making if Guardiola desires it. He has never stayed overly long in his jobs, but that stance has shifted at City, where he still has two years remaining on his contract.
Still, there are other frontiers. A crack at Italy’s Serie A, maybe with Juventus. Or after winning City’s first Champions League perhaps a stint at winning Qatar’s first elusive Champions League trophy at Paris Saint-Germain.
The most likely future direction post-City, however, is international football, something Ferguson never tried.
Success at club level by no means translates to success in World Cups and European Championships and Copa Americas but will the glint of the Jules Rimet start interrupting his dreams?
Guardiola possesses an almost unnerving intensity to his management and international football could be the natural transition, for his own sanity as much as anything. With its lengthy breaks, less time with players, fewer matches in intenser periods, maybe only then will he finally be able to get his voice back.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/zGgYFXn
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