Messi was now or never. He has a look of distance and resignation from his team when it doesnt click
No need to leave out the cups he won mate. Other clubs would happily include the cups too. Hell, people are still praising Mourinho for winning a League Cup.
true, they would need to buy players for him ontop to play with ( if it did actually happen)Well, he'll still come there next year, IF Ped is still there. But they'll again need a CF, CDM perhaps? LB as neither Mendy nor Zinchenko look convincing, so they are going to need another massive summer. This team got 100 points a season ago, they're probably a de Bruyne injury away from throwing the season away in first half of the season.
100m my balls. He has to replace a lot of what has already been bought and prepare for Fernandinho and Aguero leaving.Another £100m required for the greatest manager ever to be competitive again. Was probably licking his lips at the thought of Messi carrying his team once more.
100m my balls. He has to replace a lot of what has already been bought and prepare for Fernandinho and Aguero leaving.
For him to overtake Liverpool he might need a 2b spend over his tenure which would be absolutely ridiculous.
Why aren't the OleOUT crew in here defending Pep's honour?
You are so strange sometimes, mate
Peps coaching causes mental burn out for himself and his teams. He can’t kept that level of intensity long term. I give him 1 more season max before his next sabbatical. I don’t know how anyone can top them for the league with such confidence. They’re weaker than last season in my opinion. No Sane. No David Silva in the dressing room. Aguero & Fernandinho a year older.
I like this. Pep is so good, it’s just physically impossible to keep up that level of excellence for longer than a few years. He’s basically coached City’s brains out.
No, Liverpool signed plenty of shit with Edwards before Klopp arrived. Markovic, Lambert, Balotelli, Iago Aspas, Luis Alberto, Benteke. Or am I wrong? Was that not Edwards?
Those shambolic tactics against Lyon was his Jose/Sevilla moment. The demise is well underway. Think he won’t be at City next season after Ole schools him yet again this season.
Over the course of his time as a manager Pep has been my favorite manger in world football. It’s been just over a decade now since that year, and that night in Rome.
At some point you do have to wonder if his time at the very top is approaching it’s end. All managers have a finite lifespan at the top, as we all saw with Jose, with Ancelloti, with Vangle, with Wenger etc. One day Pep’s time will come as well.
Is it now? Or is it just that his ideas have run their course at City, as they did during his last season at Barcelona. Their performances now look some distance away from the team that steamrolled the league when he last won it. It will be interesting to see how this season goes for him, and where he is next season. I can’t see City firing him, as who is out there that realistically they can get to follow up on Pep, but whether he chooses to leave and take another sabbatical, who knows?
Those shambolic tactics against Lyon was his Jose/Sevilla moment. The demise is well underway. Think he won’t be at City next season after Klopp schools him yet again this season.
Very interesting article here on managerial shelf life.
The basic premise is that on average managers take around 7–8 years to enter a period where they win the most trophies clustered together, which then lasts another 7–8 years, followed by 11–12 years falling to the periphery, with the occasional burst of brilliance.
It's from June 2018 and at that point Pep showed no signs of stopping but if he finishes this season without a major trophy, which looks likely at this stage, he isn't bucking the trend.
https://medium.com/@databeats/footb...l-phases-and-diminishing-returns-234b41ffe084
It's a bit the same with Mourinho wasn't it? He burst onto the scene in 2004, and was basically untouchable right up until his Madrid stint (I rate his time at Inter as the peak of his career), so that falls into that timeline as well, more or less. There was the last title win at Chelsea but that seemed more like the league being terrible than them being anything outstanding.
It will certainly be interesting to see if this is the season that Pep does indeed begin to fade.
And when I think about things like this it makes it all the more remarkable that Sir Alex managed to stay at the very top for so long. That man really was something else.
Did you read the article?
Practically all of the big managers fall into this pattern. Fergie's really the only one who had two periods of success, pretty much back to back, although the earlier one was slightly more sucessful so he was able to shoe-horn him into his model.
They are also totally leaving out Liverpool Klopp.
I see. This "imperial phase" stuff seems way too arbitrary for me, but oh well.The article was written 2 years ago.
I see. This "imperial phase" stuff seems way too arbitrary for me, but oh well.
Looks like it generally fits but disregarding Udo Lattek's 2nd peak, Ernst Happel's first peak, Sir Alex's 2nd peak is a bit iffy! Definitely interesting though.
Guardiola does kind of buck the trend given he didn't have such a long "pre-imperial phase", and it wouldn't surprise me if he didnt have that long a post-imperial phase. He's mentioned multiple times that he burns himself and those around him out, so it wouldn't be surprising if he goes to another team, reaches incredible highs and embarrassing lows once more, then calls it quits.
I'd be delighted if he did that with us starting from next summer, and brought Messi. As long as we got an actual director of football. He clearly needs someone great at choosing his squad additions.