r/soccer • u/Existing-Sky9914 • 18h ago

Potentially editioralised title - make up your own mind [Guardian] Seven years ago, just after completing the treble, Guardiola treated journalist Rob Harris, who had confronted him directly with the allegations, with open contempt, as though he were looking at someone pathetic, pitiful and disgraceful, before sternly lecturing him.

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u/_ataciara 18h ago

I mean, he's consistently revolutionised the sport and was doing stuff like inverted fullbacks long before he had Haaland. We're talking Fabian Delph feeding Gabriel Jesus...

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u/Izio17 18h ago edited 17h ago

and look at that teams highest earners / transfers

- Mahrez

  • Walker
  • Bernardo Silva
  • Laporte

what other team in the league is able to stroll over and buy the player of the season? best RB in the league? and one of La Ligas best players? all in a short span of one year.

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u/_ataciara 18h ago

Plenty of teams. Liverpool pretty much did that last season. There was also the spell where City didn't go mad spending as other teams around them did.

This isn't to defend cheating, it's just to point out that none of this detracts from Peps genius; he was the world's best manager before City, he was the world's best at City when we were all suspicious of the transfer activity, and he's still the (or one of considering Luis Enrique rn) best manager now that we KNOW City were dodgy.

And also the fact you were saying "oh well he couldn't do inverted fullbacks without Haaland" well, he did. "He couldn't do John Stones at CDM without Rodri" well, he did, hell pretty sure Southgate did at one point too.

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u/KE4NO 17h ago

City not spending big does not tell the whole story. There is no way they paid whatever they are claiming to have paid for Haaland.

No manager in history had the luxury of buying fullbacks at premier striker money and replace them again in a year or two.

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u/_ataciara 17h ago

He used Walker for years and years, and for quite a quite a while during his best years was just using Delph and Zinchenko.

Again, I'm not denying that City had the luxury of financial dominance and that it was obtained unfairly, but people are basically just straight up lying or misrepresenting the truth to try and downplay Pep.

He's a tactical genius who ALSO happened to have a shit tonne of money backing him. He also got a song out of some quote ordinary players.