Pep Guardiola may have won a trophy for every 20 games or so he has managed, but he is not a ‘world class’ manager.
Guardiola has managed Barcelona and Bayern Munich, and is now moving to the Premier League to manage Manchester City.
You can’t say every manager that has been in charge of a top team in Europe’s elite domestic leagues has it easy, but Guardiola has definitely had it easier than most.
Anyone in charge of the teams Guardiola had in his career would have won titles – those teams were full of superstars.
Jose Mourinho and Diego Simeone are managers I classify as world class.
Simeone has achieved unbelievable success with Atletico Madrid, winning the Liga BBVA with the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona in the same competition, and qualifying for two Champions League finals in three years. Best of all, his team isn’t all about money, but love and passion for football. It’s an extraordinary achievement.
The Argentine has achieved things with a team that doesn’t have a superstar player in every position on the field, but his 11 players give their all for the 90 minutes, and always play with heart. Simeone has created an atmosphere around that team no other manager could have.
Mourinho has managed teams like Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Chelsea, but I classify him as a great manager because of what he achieved with a team that wasn’t the best in their domestic league.
At FC Porto, Mourinho won Europe’s most prestigious competition, the UEFA Champions League, with a team featuring some great players but not full of superstars. This created his name, and led to a big-money move to Chelsea.
Yes, at Chelsea he was funded with ridiculous amounts of money, but he brought the club their first top-flight domestic title for over 50 years by winning the Premier League. Since then, ‘The Special One’ has had success with Inter Milan, winning the Serie A and the Champions League, and won the Liga BBVA at Real Madrid. He then returned to Chelsea to win another Premier League.
Diego Simeone and Jose Mourinho are world-class managers, but I am not yet convinced that Pep Guardiola is in their league.
If Guardiola wins the same amount of titles with Manchester City as he has with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, then he will have proven himself with a team that is great but in a league full of other great teams.
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