This is just so weird. It is taking some value of SAF, and then asking Pep to do it. I mean it makes no sense, but let’s do the reverse.
SAF was a great manager. But can he win a treble before he is 40… I do t think so.
Or can SAF win league titles in three different big leagues? I mean, he probably could have done so, but he would have needed to leave United for it to happen. And there was no reason for him to leave United to please people in the internet. Same for Pep. He probably could do what Unai Emery did 5 times or so, or what some random manager of BVB almost did, or what Ranieri did, but why he should accept a job that is paid 5 times less and has worse players to work with when he could select the club he wants?
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They are very different managers and there is no need for Pep to do for what SAF did (and then a million things that SAF didn’t) for Pep to surpass SAF. Winning with a lesser team in particular makes no sense. If he would be at a lesser team, it is effectively a demotion, so he would have needed to fail at his current job something that he never does. If he leaves City right now, and he is open to a new job, I think every big team (probably not United cause we are weird) would try to get him. So why would he need to go to a lesser team to make happy people in the internet, where big teams that pay more and give a higher chance of success would want him.
For what is worth, I think that things that really matter are: a) number of big trophies won, b) influence in the game, c) how dominant his teams have been.
a) he still lags behind SAF, but it is very likely that when their careers are over, he will be well ahead. He already has 11 big league titles, SAF has 13 (15 if you found Scotland). So Pep would likely need another 2 years to reach the former, and maybe 5 for the latter. While already having more UCLs (and he will likely win more).
b) Pep is the most influential manager since Rinus Michel. Every team now does pass and move, every team presses like crazy, every team plays from the back, every team is focused in the midfield. He pretty much homogenized football from many styles to a style that try to copy what he is doing.
c) dominance in football -> maybe except a few matches in his first season at City, I think he has started every match on his career are favorites. They have been the team to beat in whatever league he was, against whatever team he faced. Dominant big teams had to change tactics and go for some counter attacking football when playing his teams (or look like fools such as SAF’s United or Wenger’s Arsenal). Since I watch football, that has never been the case for any other manager. And yes, quite often they lost matches, in UCL some were particularly shocking (losing against Monaco and Lyon, getting embarrassed 5-0 by Ancelotti’s Madrid), but every big manager had these shocking defeats (SAF couldn’t even reach the KO stage twice in this century).
I think by the end of his career this won’t even be a debate. It will be even less a question than the equally stupid ‘is Messi the best ever player?’
