Pep Guardiola was a good midfielder in his time with Barcleona, but certainly not a great one. But Guardiola as a coach, now that’s another thing. The Spaniard has three Champions League trophies so far (one less than Carlo Ancelotti) and is closing in on sir Alex Ferguson and his 49 overall trophies (Pep has 37). But there is another side of Guadiola’s success and that is his knowledge of the game, constant adaptation and tactical invations. Many former assistants and players always emphasised that it was the Spaniard who ’opened’ their eyes to football, even they played it themselves before. But, there is at least one flaw with the great manager – he is certainly not ’people’s person’.Bojan reveals: “Pep’s Barca didn’t treat Zlatan with due respect”During his tenure with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City, he sold a lot of players and that is quite normal in the managerial business, but lots of them didn’t fancy the way he treated them. Zlatan Ibrahimović was a fantastic player and Guardiola was a fantastic coach. But that duo just didn’t work together in Barcelona. Ibra left after just one year, even thou he was paid almost 60 million pounds. “As a coach, he was fantastic. As a person, I’ve no comments about that, that’s something else. He’s not a man, there’s nothing more to say” Ibrahimovic explained later. Guardiola didn’t see an eye to eye with Cameroonian legend Samuel Eto’o, with whome he won the Champions League in Barcelona and sold him later but Eto’o came back to eliminate Barca with Inter in 2020. “My experience with Pep at Barcelona was what it was, but on a personal level it wasn’t what we hoped for. Many players have said the same about him. I can’t compare Mourinho to Guardiola, one of them couldn’t win the Champions League with Bayern Munich and the other one did it with Porto” he said a few years ago, obviously aiming at Guardiola. Yaya Toure hopes to settle the feud with Pep GuardiolaYaya Toure worked twice with the Spaniard (Barcelona and Manchester City) and it didn’t work out both times. When the cooperation ended for the second time, Toure was angry. “When you realise that he has problems with Africans, wherever he goes, I ask myself questions” he said to France Football. He and his menager have said this numerous times since, but a few years ago Toure apologized to Guardiola. Small talk with Pep left Hart with a broken heartJoe Hart was first choice goalkeeper and two time Premier League winner. But when Guardiola came, he was soon replaced. “It was a two-hour conversation that kind of ended with him saying, ‘I can’t see this working’. ’I’ll be the first person to be proved wrong but what I see in you isn’t what I want from my goalkeeper.’ I was like, ‘It’s all very well saying that, but I’ve never been asked to do the kind of things I know you like goalkeepers to do, so I think it’s only fair I be given the opportunity” said Hart to the Stiffs podcast. During his time with Bayern, Guardiola won three consecutive titles, but defender Dante, now with Nice wasn’t happy anyway. “He doesn’t speak with you. As a player you don’t know what situation you’re in. There are coaches that from a tactical point of view are world class but on a human level they’re not so good. That is the case with Guardiola” said the Brazilian about his coach to Sport. Cancelo: Lying Guardiola and ungraithful Man CityJoao Cancelo was a first-team player in City, but at one point lost his place and soon left on loan first to Bayern Munich and then to Barcelona. “Lies were told! I’ve never been a bad team-mate for them and you can ask either Ake or Lewis. I don’t have any superiority or inferiority complex towards them, but that’s the manager’s opinion. I stayed because it’s not true. I think Man City were a bit ungrateful to me when they said that, because I was a very important player in the years I was there“ he said to A Bola recently. His teammate Raheem Sterling was a regular also with Guardiola, but unlike with Cancelo, there was no rift between a played and his coach, so his transfer to Chelsea in 2022 came as a suprise. But Raheem later explained. “Everyone wants to feel wanted, football is no different. When you play your heart out, sacrifice some of your kids’ birthdays, and then get treated in a certain way, it’s disappointing. At the time I was fuming, raging, but it’s gone, it’s in the past and I can only focus on the present” he said. ##NAJAVA_MECA_7984663##
