Yes but he is a failure by the expectations of his very expensive team and reputation as the bestest manager. It's only that nobody in the media is prepared to call him a fraud for only being able to manage with a billion budget. Didn't do so well in his first season with Citeh did he, until he spent vast amounts on the defence. What say the media? He identified a weakness and corrected it. Good management. No not really. Identifying a problem is easy, having the money to correct it is something very different.
Playing on easy mode with the full financial backing of a dodgy state. Also won things with Barcelona and Bayern Munich. There's no doubt that he's a good manager, but he's one dimensional. He gets away with it because of the sheer quality of the players that he's got available. I'm sure he'll go on to win plenty of trophies with Al-Ahli, too. Let's see him do it with a club that isn't doped to the eyeballs, either financially or literally.
Even in my most desperate 'how can I eat/use all this fruit hours before it goes off ?? ' pondering, could I come up with something like this.
Oh you’re being serious. For me he’s still the best manager around and one of the best of all time. There’s a reason all the big clubs who had the choice of anyone wanted Pep. I find the argument, let’s see him win a trophy with a small club redundant as that’s never going to happen. From City he will probably go into international football or possibly Italy or France. But in those countries it will only be top clubs like Inter, Juve or PSG because he’s the best.
I think Klopp’s better than Pep. Won the league with two different teams in different countries and done so without being in charge of either the best team or most financially backed. Pep’s a very, very good manager, there can be no denying that and his football can be a joy to watch but when you’re given everything to succeed like he has, I don’t find his achievements as good or as impressive as someone like Klopp’s.
If he hadn't got the Barca job when he did, how would he have shown he was the best. Of course he couldn't go to Burnley and win the league, but could he go there and get them top 10 or at least away from relegation. It is an easier job with lots of money to spend.
He's good at big clubs with virtually unlimited resources. His style of play suits the players that they'll have available. When he took over at Bayern, for example, they'd literally won everything the previous season. Heynckes got them the German equivalents to the Charity Shield, FA Cup, league title and the CL, too. Guardiola added Gotze and Thiago to the squad, but failed to keep the Champions League. Then he added Lewandowski and Xabi Alonso the next season and only won the Bundesliga. Did the double the next season and then left without winning the Champions League. Did he do well? Yes, of course. Did he have much of a domestic challenge? Not really.
Identifying the problems is the easy bit, buying players who can fix it is the major problem, regardless of money unless you have a bottomless pit like City, Chelsea and now Newcastle. No team has a record of all their transfers being successful, and I don't even have to check that on google because it's self evident. Remember when United had all those kids that came from their academy, the kids that would never win anything. They have never managed to repeat that trick have they. In recent times they just buy their stars. Where would Southampton be if they were able to retain all their young players in recent years? Brian Clough managed to win 2 equiv. CL Cups with Forest and reach the semi finals with Derby, taking both clubs to their first time winning the top division of English football that was over 40 years ago. These things just don't happen very often. Pepe Guardiola does not even come to close to these achievements. Or even the success of the Liverpool teams during the 70's. Not winning trophies is the norm in English football, it's only in recent years when money has distorted the picture that teams like Chelsea and City have made the trophies theirs by buying them. Buying the players to fix Spurs will require a good eye and some luck, hopefully Conte has his eye in. Do we feel lucky punks?
And other teams' academies... Utd now have to compete on that front with similarly dubious clubs. Lot's of real estate buying for relatives, allegedly.
Conte's a little less high maintenance than some. He did a very effective 'makeover' on Victor Moses and with Kante in front of them, turned David Luiz, Gary Cahill and Azpilicueta into a pretty bloody effective defence. He's good at working with players with limitations and getting the very best out of top talent. We're short of (at least) 1 central defender, a couple of midfielders and a striker. A little extra quality in other positions wouldn't go amiss...but Guardiola would be requesting a complete rebuild. Conte's more adaptable so, if we don't short change him and are seriously committed to him and pump in some additional finance, he will deliver on his promise to give us "a competitive team with a will to fight." That would be a pretty good start...so, this punk is feeling lucky-ish....
You know me, I’m usually very pessimistic as I feel the club have made too many bad decisions in recent years. This appointment feels different, I feel like it’s a huge statement and that the owners are focusing more on the playing side of things now they’ve delivered the stadium and training ground. This punk is feeling lucky (for once)
I can’t speak for luck but for the first time in a long while I’ve got a sense of optimism back. ANTONIOOOOO! ANTONIOOOOO! ANTONIO! ANTONIO! ANTONIOOOOO!
