He's not. He's actually incredibly spikey and an extremely bad loser (like all the great managers). Yes he got rid of big players at Barcelona but to claim he made Messi is like saying Mourinho made Drogba, Lampard and Terry because they performed even better than they did. At Bayern, they had done the historic treble, smashed all teams aside in the CL (much like Peps Barca) and looked like they would dominate. All their players were at good ages and Pep managed 3 Cl Semis in a row, which is also what Mourinho did at Real which if we're honest is a failure as a club of the sizes of Real and Bayern. As for that City side, that City side was still a great side. It won the league easily 3 seasons and ago (prior to the last one), challenged for the title 2 seasons ago, and in the Leicester City PL win season was top at christmas before City announced that Pellegrini was offskis. Imbalanced, possibly but the defence isn't as bad as he makes it out to be (sagna, clichy, zabaleta, kolarov, no one would have said Moses and Alonso were better than them prior to last season) and his fault for spunking all his money on more attackers and 50m on a rubbish stones. Their attack was still world class with Aguero, Silva, Toure (a bit further downhill) KDB and Fernandino with Sterling in the wings. He massively underachieved last year and let a chelsea side who finished 10th win it
He's humble about his achievements and doesn't seek any fanfare over his success. Of course he's a bad loser, but compared to Klopp he is very calm and reasonable in defeat. Bayern had just won the treble, the board messed up with the signing of Gotze and there were massive injuries problems in his first season at Bayern. Real Madrid were the first team to retain a CL title, so success in the competition is so, so extremely difficult to be sure of. There's too many variables, and great teams/managers also competing at 100% to win it. Pep was also trying to instill a different footballing philosophy at Bayern, which also left them more susceptible to being beaten by the big teams in the later rounds. It was a great attacking side, but still contained players that weren't suited for Pep's style of play. Their fullbacks were the same set they had since 20/1011 and were all past it.. Look at Zabaleta who was being kept out of the side by Navas last season. The fullbacks were so average and the worst of any of the top 6. Kompany was also injured for most of the season. Stones could yet prove himself to be a great signing, he's only what, 23/24? He did underachieve last year, but you're judging him after the first year of a long term project. The City board aren't, because they're not stupid.
Thats the point. Hes trying to implement something for players who dont work. I bet i could implement the best football ever if i had all the best players in the world. He tried it at bayern too and ruined what was a perfect setup for that team. Stones better be a decent prospect they paid 50m for him! (I dont think he will be). I guess people were expecting him to show how good his coaching is ala barca, instead hes just gone and bought all these top notch players at vvd prices.
Who's to say it won't work given time? What was he supposed to do with his full back situation, carry on with Sagna/Zabaleta/Kolarov/Clichy? The market is the market and City are always going to have to pay top dollar for the player they want. He tried to move them on from the aging Robben/Ribery. Ancelotti is still trying to do that, he's done worse than Pep. Is he a bad manager? Barca had a once in a generation batch of talent come through & Pep did great work with them. It's unlikely to be repeated.
Fair enough, was wondering what the hold up was, once that deal goes through can see a huge knock on effect and should get a few things moving in the window
Agreed Pep is overrated. Deserves credit for the style of play at Barca but the squad was comfortably the best in the world anyway. The ****fest over him if he wins the league after spending around half a billion will be ****ing nauseating. Luckily, I don't think he will.
Hard to say until window shuts but can't see anyone other than Manc clubs and Chelsea making up the top 3. I quite fancy United tbh.
Should add they probably are favourites due to their squad but imo have the worst manager of the 3 I mentioned. If they get a cb then they should absolutely romp it imo bearing in mind the attacking talent they have.
I actually think Chelsea might not make the top 4 as it stands, but a lot can change in the next month or so. Can't see anyone else troubling the top 6 really, managed to get a bet on with my Everton mate about them making top 4 which I'm pretty confident about
Chelsea is a strange one. They seem to have a habit of ****ing things up after a title. Reckon they'll regret getting rid of Costa personally. A lot will probably depend on how Morata settles. Everton I think have made a lot of good signings but could take a while to integrate and still need a striker. Giroud would be a class signing. Think they'll start slowly but get better as time goes on. Fancy them to do quite well in Europe tho.
Can't see Spurs getting top 4 let alone 2nd! Unbeaten at whl last season with 17 wins. Won't be getting anywhere near that next year.
Just watching them against City (half time now), they could and perhaps should be 5 or 6 down. As it stands it's 1-0 to City.
