14 February 2024 , 15:56
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Pep Guardiola can claim his place as the greatest manager the game has ever seen in the next four months.
While all the talk has been about Jurgen Klopp leaving Liverpool with a Quadruple at the end of the season, the Manchester City boss remains of course for a second successive Treble - and it's THE Treble.
Guardiola equalled Sir Alex Ferguson’s 1999 achievement with Manchester United by lifting the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup last season. He also completed a clean sweep with Barcelona in his first year as a coach in 2008. He became the first manager in Spain to do it - at the age of just 37.
Guardiola still rates Fergie as No.1 - by virtue of the Scot winning 49 trophies during his 39-year managerial career. The Catalan already has 38.
The 53-year-old knows that silverware remains the most important currency when it comes to measuring greatness. But he is also leaving the kind of legacy that none of his contemporaries come close to.
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As Guardiola explained in December: “Sir Alex Ferguson is No 1 for the amount of titles he won and the consistency. I would say close after Johan Cruyff and Arrigo Sacchi. It’s not just their tactics, it’s the influence. Sacchi didn’t win titles like Sir Alex, but he changed generations of managers and players. For me, they are the best. When I retire, I don’t know if people will consider me. You have to finish your career.”
Guardiola has changed the coaching landscape in England over the last eight years in the same way he did in Spain and Germany. His Barcelona team provided the backbone of the side that won Spain’s first World Cup in 2010 - and four years later it was the same when Germany triumphed with a squad packed with Bayern faces.
City have won their last 11 games in all competitions. They are potentially 25 matches away from immortality. Publicly Guardiola rates his chances at “less than 1 percent.” He’s delivering a different message to his players.
Guardiola oversaw Manchester City's first ever Champions League triumph (Getty Images)The 3-1 win in Copenhagen means the Blues have one foot in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Their 20-game unbeaten run in the competition is just five short of the record set by Ferguson’s United between 2007-09. City will set a new standard if they remain unbeaten all the way to retaining the trophy.
This year’s final is at Wembley. Guardiola was in the Barcelona team that lifted the club’s first European Cup under the Twin Towers in 1992. Seventeen years later his Barca team dismantled Fergie’s United under the arch of the new stadium.
Carlo Anceloti is the only manager who has lifted the Champions League more times than the City boss - and the Italian’s Real Madrid team will have ambitions of preventing Guardiola from equalling his achievement of a fourth success on June 1.
Ancelotti has managed more Champions League games than any other coach. Guardiola is also behind Ferguson and Arsene Wenger in that respect. But the Madrid manager’s 113 wins put him just five in front of the Catalan, with Ferguson retiring on 102.
Guardiola sensed his players wanted even more the moment they reported for pre-season training. If his own appetite for success remains the same, he could achieve things that may never be equalled.
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