So Long, Pep

When I wrote my last post, about Arsenal's Premier League win, I talked about Pep Guardiola's departure from Manchester City as a done deal, though apparently it hadn't been completely decided yet at that juncture. It was subsequently confirmed, though, and so today marks Pep's last day in charge of Man City, after ten seasons in charge and oodles of trophies.

How many trophies make up an "oodle"? He won the Premier League six times, the FA Cup three times, the League/EFL Cup five times, the Champions League once, and the Club World Cup once as well. Not counting the Community Shield or the UEFA Super Cup, that makes 15 major trophies in ten seasons. Only in two of those seasons (2016-17 and 2024-25) did City fail to win a major trophy (though they won the Community Shield in 2024).

Compare that with his tenure at Barcelona, where he won the league three times, the Copa del Rey twice, the Champions League twice, and the Club World Cup twice, for a total of 9 major trophies (again, not including Supercopas de España or UEFA Super Cups). And then there's Bayern Munich, where he won the league three times, the DFB-Pokal twice and the Club World Cup once, for 6 trophies.

His trophies per season at Barcelona were 2.25, at Bayern he won 2 per season, and at City a comparatively paltry 1.5 per season, though it's fair to say he had a similar level of dominance in each league. I've said I don't think the Premier League is as competitive as some make it out to be, but it's also true that the Bundesliga is pretty much a closed shop and the Spanish league is not that far off - six league titles in ten seasons, including one where they dominated so heavily that City racked up 100 points, is pretty impressive, no matter how you slice it.

Not only that, but his time at City elevated Pep into a cultural figure, such that he made an appearance in Ted Lasso and felt impelled to weigh in on topics like the war in Gaza or Catalan independence. His time at Barcelona was fortunate enough to coincide with Lionel Messi's, which made Guardiola something of an icon among fans, but coming to City felt a little bit like raising his profile globally. Which sounds weird, but because so much of world culture is in English, and so much of what isn't in English still looks to the Anglophone world, means that when he came to England, his face would become instantly recognizable.

Now, I don't know any Man City fans personally, so I can't vouch for how they see him, though I suspect many on the blue side of Manchester have named their children Pep in the years since he came to their club. But I think I can confidently say that, global cultural figure or not, Pep didn't make himself as associated with the club as Jürgen Klopp did at Liverpool - Klopp seems to have bought into the Liverpool ethos more readily than Pep did at City, and so became a beloved figure among the fans. I don't know if Guardiola's as associated with City, which is funny when you consider that the hierarchy at Manchester City is heavily Catalan precisely so they could bring Guardiola on.

That also points to one of the big criticisms I've seen leveled at Guardiola: that he's always played on easy mode. He cut his teeth at Barcelona, one of the world's richest clubs and the place where he learned to play the basics of the style he popularized; then he moved to Munich and Germany's most successful club, kicking off a run of 11 successive league titles; before taking the reins at a petrostate-backed sports washing project. I once watched an interview where a pundit suggested that Jose Mourinho, Guardiola's main rival in Spain, was a better coach because Pep had always managed such dominant clubs - I think that pundit might reconsider given Mourinho's subsequent performances at Manchester United, Spurs and elsewhere, but there's something to the criticism.

Certainly it's hard to imagine how well Guardiola would get on if he suddenly found himself managing a team in League Two, where the budget to buy the best player for every position just isn't there. Though it's also true that Mourinho always benefited from managing the biggest and/or richest teams too.

None of this is to say that I don't rate Guardiola. I absolutely do, more than Mourinho or Klopp, if I'm honest. Klopp may have become more of a local hero (and more of a local hero than a lot of preceding Liverpool managers, it has to be said), but he didn't upend the game the way Guardiola did at Barcelona or City. One of the podcasts I listen to mentioned how when Pep came to England, the style of play was more basic than now, but in 2026, even teams down in the lower leagues set up in the same way as Premier League teams, with play flowing out from goalkeepers in a way it never did before. 

I'm actually quite excited to see where Guardiola ends up next. He seems not to have ruled out managing in England again, but I hope he doesn't - big-name managers who come back always seem to end up plunging down the table until they find themselves relegated to the Championship (see Rafael Benitez at Newcastle). I'd actually like to see Pep take over in Italy, so that he can work his magic at one of the big clubs there - even potentially win a Champions League again. My preference would be for him to pitch up at Juventus, of course, but I can't deny that it would be exciting to see him in the dugout at Napoli, for example.

He might also come and manage the England national team, which feels like it would be a mismatch for his talents. His career is based on meticulous training with a team he's built in his own image, whereas at a national team he'd have to make do with whoever has that country's citizenship and he'd have them only a few days per month for qualifying campaigns. Which isn't to say it'd be fun to see what happened if Pep did manage England, but I just don't think it'd bring the dominance many are expecting.

As far as the future, it's been noted that Mikel Arteta, at Arsenal, learned his trade from Guardiola, which makes this campaign a fitting capstone to Guardiola's time in England. Another fitting capstone is that Pep's replacement at City will be Enzo Maresca, another Pep student. Though given what I've heard about Maresca's tactical inflexibility, I suspect he won't be quite as dominant as his mentor was.

It's unlikely that there will never be a Premier League manager as dominant as Guardiola, but I think I can say that none of the current crop seems like they'll be as dominant or influential on the way the game is played. But I'm eager to see the next chapter, for Pep, for City and for the Premier League as a whole.