P£p Guardiola

[Uilleam 5,924]

The greatest football management genius, or

is all that glisters merely, well, gold, after all?

 

The Guardian has the temerity to question P£p........

 

Pep Guardiola should be nurturing Raheem Sterling not spending more cash

 

Paul Wilson

Manchester City’s manager has the raw material so why is he not bringing the best out of such players rather than attempting to buy other clubs’ top performers like Alexis Sánchez?

 

@paulwilsongnm

Wednesday 30 August 2017 12.36 BST

 

The final days and hours of the transfer window seem to be conforming to the usual pattern, the one that makes everyone wonder why, if clubs can get so much done in so short a time, they could not have compressed all their business into a few selected weeks of the close season.

 

The possibility of Alexis Sánchez moving from Arsenal to Manchester City is one that already seems to have been around for several lifetimes and there are even claims the Arsenal players are now hoping it goes through because the Chilean’s attitude has become so disruptive. The end of the window on Thursday cannot come soon enough.

 

One imagines City will get their man, with or without Raheem Sterling moving in the opposite direction, at which point a tiny sigh of disappointment will be forgivable from anyone who imagined Pep Guardiola was going to be a breath of fresh air in English football.

 

Naturally it is still possible to support the City manager’s passion for attacking football and desire to surround himself with top players, though the impression gleaned from the Barcelona years was that here was a coach with a new way of playing, someone who could improve the effectiveness of the players at his disposal by taking teamwork and tactical awareness to new levels. No one imagined Guardiola could turn City into Barcelona just by coming over and breathing on them, though by the same token, few could have supposed it would have cost so much money and duplication to knock a capable side into the team of his dreams.

 

The duplication element is important because it is so wasteful. If Sánchez arrives at the Etihad it appears one or both of Sterling and Sergio Agüero will be collateral damage. Both are excellent footballers and neither has done anything to let the club down. Agüero is one of the best finishers in the business, probably the sharpest goalgetter in England, and though Sterling is nowhere near as clinical in front of goal he has boundless pace and energy.

 

The raw material is there, in other words and surely a coach of Guardiola’s status should be finding ways to bring the best out of such players rather than marginalising them in favour of spending even more money on other clubs’ leading performers.

 

There seems little doubt Agüero and Sterling would find themselves on the periphery. It happened to an extent last season when Gabriel Jesus arrived and might have created more of a problem had the Brazilian managed to stay fit. Now Jesus is back in action there is no way City can shoehorn him into the same frontline as Agüero, Sánchez, both Silvas, Sterling and Leroy Sané, and whatever problems are solved by the arrival of the Arsenal man are likely to be offset by departure or disillusionment among the rest of the squad.

 

Perhaps Guardiola is prepared for that, perhaps Agüero does not do enough work outside the penalty box and perhaps Sterling was always going to struggle to score enough goals to live up to his £49m fee. Yet there is no guarantee Sánchez would significantly outperform either and the possibility exists that Guardiola has already signed enough attacking players.

 

There is no doubting Sánchez’s quality, at least when he is fully focused on playing, though most City supporters seem to be perfectly happy with the offensive players already at the club and still a little bit anxious about the situation in central defence. For all their money City are still not quite the club with everything, and nor will they be should they complete the signing of Sánchez.

 

Spending £70m on the luxury of a world-class forward is all very well, though quite a few people in Manchester would like to see the club show the same tenacity and perseverance in their pursuit of Jonny Evans.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/aug/30/pep-guardiola-raheem-sterling-alexis-sanchez-manchester-city

Edited August 30, 2017 by Uilleam

[craig 5,199]

Using Sterling as the bat to hit Pep with is silly. The best managers in the world, of whom Pep can be considered one, with the greatest will in the world, wouldn't be able to alter Sterling's "all pace, no brains" football. Funny how they are, though, beating Pep for not nurturing Sterling when, if accounts to be believed, City have said that they don't want to release Sterling as part of the deal.

 

I failed to read beyond "Sterling is an excellent footballer". No, he really isn't.

[Uilleam 5,924]

Using Sterling as the bat to hit Pep with is silly. The best managers in the world, of whom Pep can be considered one, with the greatest will in the world, wouldn't be able to alter Sterling's "all pace, no brains" football. Funny how they are, though, beating Pep for not nurturing Sterling when, if accounts to be believed, City have said that they don't want to release Sterling as part of the deal.

 

I failed to read beyond "Sterling is an excellent footballer". No, he really isn't.

 

Throw in Aguero, who is the other side of the "bat" in the article, and the suggestion that

"....surely a coach of Guardiola’s status should be finding ways to bring the best out of such players rather than marginalising them in favour of spending even more money on other clubs' leading performers",

becomes a resonable debating point.

Edited August 30, 2017 by Uilleam

[craig 5,199]

Throw in Aguero, who is the other side of the "bat" in the article, and the suggestion that

"....surely a coach of Guardiola’s status should be finding ways to bring the best out of such players rather than marginalising them in favour of spending even more money on other clubs' leading performers",

becomes a resonable debating point.

 

Is he really marginalizing Aguero ? Arsenal wanted him in the deal too and City refused as well, apparently.

 

The headline, and indeed, the main thrust of the article was about nurturing talent. How do you nurture a 29 yr old ?

 

This is nothing more than a hatchet job on Guardiola. Every other manager will have certain types of players that they prefer to utilize and some players won't be their "type". Very few of us complained when Pedro said the same about O Halloran.

 

To flip the Aguero debate... where you say he is being marginalized someone else could say that it is a very strong, brave decision of a manager to bench a very popular player who just last season scored 31 goals for his club

 

As I said, it is more of a hatchet job on Guardiola than anything else - if similar was said about Pedro not nurturing O Halloran or even McKay we wouldn't be best impressed by the article.

[Uilleam 5,924]

i didn't write the piece, but it is far from a "hatchet job", unless you are one of those who regard any, even the mildest, form of criticism, or questioning, of Odour of Sanctity FC, and by extension its erstwhile manage/coach, as such. It merely questions the rationale, and, yes, effectiveness, of spending, spending, spending, rather than, demonstrating his credentials as, ahem, "the greatest football coach in the world/of all time/that there will ever be."

 

I have to confess that I rather hope that the Abu Dhabi Globetrotters Manchester Franchise's current project falls flat on its luxuriously overpadded arse.

Edited August 31, 2017 by Uilleam

[craig 5,199]

i didn't write the piece, but it is far from a "hatchet job", unless you are one of those who regard any, even the mildest, form of criticism, or questioning, of Odour of Sanctity FC, and by extension its erstwhile manage/coach, as such. It merely questions the rationale, and, yes, effectiveness, of spending, spending, spending, rather than, demonstrating his credentials as, ahem, "the greatest football coach in the world/of all time/that there will ever be."

 

I have to confess that I rather hope that the Abu Dhabi Globetrotters Manchester Franchise's current project falls flat on its luxuriously overpadded arse.

 

I see your hate of Barcelons transcends what is in the article Uilleam. Your prerogative my friend. But if not prepared to be objective then best we simply agree to disagree.

 

You still haven't answered how he has marginalized Aguero - as I said, he scored 31 times for City in Guardiola's team last season, which suggests he played a large number of their games. And the Sanchez signing hasn't happened yet so there is absolutely zero evidence that he has been marginalized, unless using him being on the bench at the weekend, in one solitary game.

 

I'm no lover of Man City and the spending habits they have. But that doesn't mean Guardiola isn't an excellent coach. The article makes it sound as if he is the only coach that spends and marginalizes players. I didn't hear nearly the same furore when Sir Alex let Beckham go, or Ince, or Keane or van Nistelrooy. As I said, it's a hatchet job. But we will agree to disagree.

[Uilleam 5,924]

As I said, I didn't write it.

 

FC Barcelona is a football outfit, nothing more, nothing less. The sanctimonious oxtergugff which surrounds it irritates me.

 

It is interesting, amusing, indeed, to me, to see the cultist mentality which kicks in whenever anyone, anywhere, in any way has the effrontery to criticise it, or any of its staff, or former staff, or anything connected with it.

I would go so far as to say that many of the Barca fan boys/girls will take up cudgels on its behalf more readily, and more vigorously, than they do for their ain teams. Extraordinary.

[craig 5,199]

As I said, I didn't write it.

 

FC Barcelona is a football outfit, nothing more, nothing less. The sanctimonious oxtergugff which surrounds it irritates me.

 

It is interesting, amusing, indeed, to me, to see the cultist mentality which kicks in whenever anyone, anywhere, in any way has the effrontery to criticise it, or any of its staff, or former staff, or anything connected with it.

I would go so far as to say that many of the Barca fan boys/girls will take up cudgels on its behalf more readily, and more vigorously, than they do for their ain teams. Extraordinary.

 

I hope your final sentence isn't a subtle dig at me - because the "cudgels" you speak of would be something I would be far more ready to wield on behalf of Rangers than Barcelona.

 

I didn't say you wrote it Uilleam - not sure why so defensive when I am pointing out that the ARTICLE is a hatchet job, not you posting it.

[Uilleam 5,924]

Oh dear!! Look, even the Daily Bedlam is at it.

 

Of course the focus on P£p, is because of Sterling, who is an England International and cost £50M, so he must be good. I am tempted to ask, if he is as aforesaid, how much could anyone improve him, anyway?

 

Raheem Sterling's statistics show Pep Guardiola has not developed him as a player... why is his value so low under the Manchester City manager?

 

Pep Guardiola was hailed for his ability to develop young players upon his arrival

The Manchester City manager has failed to develop winger Raheem Sterling

Sterling was considered as a makeweight in City's pursuit of Alexis Sanchez

The 22-year-old is set to remain at the Etihad but now knows he is dispensable

By Ian Herbert For The Daily Mail

PUBLISHED: 22:45, 30 August 2017 | UPDATED: 01:35, 31 August 2017

 

It is inflammatory to make Manchester United the point of comparison when considering what Pep Guardiola has shown himself willing to do with a young English talent, but the story of Jimmy Murphy and Bobby Charlton is too appropriate to pass up.

 

Charlton had sent a number of cross-field passes sailing over his team-mates one Saturday at Old Trafford. So Murphy took him out across the same turf the following day and had him hitting the same balls across the deserted pitch into touch, then running to collect them, one by one.

 

‘Now you know how your team-mates feel,’ he told the raw young forward.

It is one of many exchanges related in a new book about Murphy — Jimmy — by biographer Wayne Barton, to be published early next year. All the stories reveal the commodity the legendary Welsh coach had in vast supply for his proteges: persistence.

 

The events of the last 48 hours have called into question whether Guardiola even believes in proteges.

 

When the waiting for him was finally over and he walked into City a little over 12 months ago, club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak proclaimed in an evangelistic annual address on the club’s website that the fabulous part about Guardiola was his ability to develop young players. ‘He has done that with Barcelona.

 

He has done that with Bayern Munich. Pep always has a knack for talent and he loves to find young players that have incredible talent,’ declared Al Mubarak.

 

The businessman’s argument is unsustainable when City have shown themselves ready to respond to Arsenal’s attempt to structure a deal including Raheem Sterling — whose £49m transfer from Liverpool was the saga of two summers ago — as a makeweight for 28-year-old Alexis Sanchez.

 

So, too, is the notion — put forward long before Guardiola’s arrival — that City’s director of football model would allow no new manager to walk in, rip it all up and start again.

 

Sterling has rough edges. His finishing is imperfect. His final ball can be inconsistent. Yet there is enough raw material to work with.

 

The statistics demonstrate that Guardiola has not developed him in the slightest as a player, despite that story of the telephone call to the forward at last summer’s European Championship, in which he boosted his crashing confidence and declared: ‘I’ll fight for you.’

 

On none of the key criteria plotted by Opta did Sterling improve under Guardiola last season. On many of them, he performed far better in his final Liverpool Premier League season under Brendan Rodgers than he ever has at City.

 

There were 75 chances created in that 2014-15 campaign, compared with 46 under Guardiola; 33 shots on target and 22 for Guardiola. He started nearly an identical number of games in the two campaigns.

 

Defenders of the Guardiola faith will tell you that he only wants the best players for his world- class team. That is consistent with one essential factor about his time at Barcelona: he needed Lionel Messi to make it all tick.

 

‘Cruyff the father, Pep the son and Messi the holy spirit,’ to quote a legendary L’Equipe front-page headline about the once-great team.

 

The complexity of agreeing fees for both Sterling and Sanchez in the last 48 hours of a transfer window mean he will not be leaving for Arsenal, although he returns to Manchester in the full knowledge that he was dispensable.

 

The dynamics of the relationship are irrevocably altered, in a way that would have been alien to Charlton and Murphy in the days when coaches improved players.

 

Charlton once said of the coach: ‘He would spare no rage if one of his proteges surrendered the ball too easily or passed it stupidly. He could also get upset if you turned him down when he invited you for a drink after special training on a Sunday.’

 

They were different times and none the poorer for it.

 

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4838208/Pep-Guardiola-failed-develop-Raheem-Sterling.html#ixzz4rKzwEHqo

Edited August 31, 2017 by Uilleam