On February 1st, the football world got arguably its biggest bombshell of 2016 so far: an announcement that Pep Guardiola would be succeeding Manuel Pellegrini as head coach at Manchester City. The news had been rumored, of course. It was back in December that Guardiola first announced that he would leave Bayern Munich at the end of the 2015/16 season, and speculation about where he would go next has been hot fodder for soccer pundits ever since. The only hint was that Pep wanted to coach in the Premier League, a clue that left Manchester United, Chelsea, and Manchester City as the Spanish manager's most likely destinations.
Guardiola's Impressive Record
On the surface, the question of whether or not Pep Guardiola will succeed at Manchester City seems like one with the most obvious answer ever: yes. When you have a coach with a success record like Guardiola, and you have him taking the job at a club with a solid success record of their own, it's difficult to imagine a scenario where the combination doesn't work out.
Indeed, you just take a look at Pep's unbelievable record to feel pretty optimistic about where the Sky Blues will be a year from now. Guardiola got his first management gig in the 2007/08 season, with the Barcelona B team. The next season, he moved up the ladder to take on the role of coaching the club's senior squad. The 2015/16 season-Guardiola's third with German heavyweights Bayern Munich-is his seventh in charge of a top-flight team.
Barring some major nosedive at Bayern in the final third of the current season, Guardiola will head to Manchester City with a six-for-seven record of domestic league titles. He coached Barcelona to La Liga victories in 2009, 2010, and 2011, and did the same at Bayern in 2014 and 2015. 2016 will likely bring a third title with the Bavarians.
Even in 2012-the one year in his coaching career where Guardiola didn't win a league title-he coached Barcelona to a runner-up finish and still helped the football club wrangle four trophies. His teams have won a combined three domestic cups, three domestic super cups, two Champions Leagues, three UEFA Super Cup titles, and three FIFA Club World Cups. His smallest trophy haul as a manager was last season, when Bayern Munich only won the Bundesliga.
Unbelievable Pressure
If there is one reason that Pep Guardiola might fail at Etihad Stadium, it's that he never has before. The Spanish soccer manager is widely considered to be the greatest in the sport right now, and his record so far has been nearly unblemished.
But even the hottest of streaks have to come to an end somewhere, and as Guardiola's critics have said, much lesser coaches could have won titles with the squads he's commanded at Barcelona and Bayern Munich. No club holds such a dominant position in the Premier League as those teams do in the La Liga and the Bundesliga, and Manchester City have only won four top-flight titles and only two of them since 1970. Can Guardiola turn the Sky Blues into the same kind of powerhouse for England as Barcelona and Bayern are for Spain and Germany? Can he, for instance, lead the football club to a first-ever Champions League title?
Of course, all of these factors are arguably the reasons Guardiola is making the move to Manchester City. He wants a new challenge, and he will find one in England. Furthermore, Pep has shown an ability to mold squads into teams that work perfectly with his style. He's an incredibly demanding coach-both of his players and his employers-and both entities will probably work to give him what he wants at City. Among other things, that could mean a big budget to bring stars like Lionel Messi or Neymar to England. And if Pep gets a star of that caliber and pairs it with an already promising City squad, there's no reason to expect anything but success from his first foray into English football.
Celebrate Guardiola's arrival in the Premier League, by picking up a brand new Manchester City shirt from the Soccer Box online store.
