Pep Guardiola has raised the bar in England and left a lasting legacy on the game of football.
The debate over which of the two managers (Pep Guardiola and Sir Alex Ferguson) is the greates is just getting along.
Guardiola has now won 11 league titles in 14 seasons of top-flight management with Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City. It is a staggering achievement and testament to the Spaniard’s ability to adapt, innovate, keep things fresh and esure the fire that burns within his players remains stoked.
Arsenal may have led the Premier League table for large swathes of the season. But when it mattered, City were the only ones with the class of champions.
They have now won five of the last six English titles and three in succession matching the three-peats of Manchester United between 1999-2001 and 2007-2009.
Their coronation over the weekend also came with the promise of much more. A Treble that also includes the FA Cup and the Champions League now looks a distinct possibility.
If they beat United at Wembley on june 3 and Inter Milan in Istanbul a week later, they will emulate the historic achievement of Sir Alex Ferguson’s United greats in the 1998-99 season.
It was a topic of conversation for Jamie Redknapp who argued that Guardiola was the greatest of all-time. This was because of the way he changed football more generally. But Micah Richards said the sheer quantity of trophies Ferguson won means that he remains ahead for now.
Trophies Won
Guardiola’s CV continues to look ever more impressive. He now has five Premier League title wins with City, added to the three he won with Barcelona and three at Bayern.
At Barca, he also claimed two Copa del Rey wins and for the sake of thoroughness, three Spanish Super Cups. With Bayern he won the German Cup twice.
At City, we can add seven other domestic trophies-one FA Cup, four League Cups and two Community Shields.
In terms of international competitions, Guardiola won the Champions League twice with Barcelona, adding two UEFA Super Cups and two FIFA Club World Cups.
He also won the Super Cup and the Club World Cup at Bayern, having inherited a Champions League winning side in 2013. European success has, for the time being, eluded him at the Etihad Stadium.
Therefore, that amounts to 33 trophies in 15 years, or 14 years of management if you take out his year’s “sabbatical” between the Barcelona and Bayern jobs.
Meanwhile, Ferguson first entered the dug-out at Scottish club East Stirlingshire in June 1974 when he was only 32 years of age. That would be the start of a managerial career that spanned almost 40 years until his retirement after nearly 27 years as United boss in 2013.
His first taste of success came when St Mirren won the Scottish First Division in 1977 going up to the Premier Division. At Aberdeen, Fegie won three
Premier Division titles in the 1980s, the Scottish Cup four times in five seasons between 1982 and 1986 and the Scottish League Cup in 1986.
The Dons famously won the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1983, beating Real Madrid in Gothenburg, and the Super Cup a few months later.
aking over at Man United in 1986, Ferguson led an unprecedented period of success spanning over two decades.
That includes 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups, 10 Charity/Community Shields, two Champions Leagues, the Cup Winners’ Cup, the UEFA Super Cup, Intercontinental Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.
Overall, that means Ferguson won 49 trophies in 39 years as a manager.
So, while Guardiola still has plenty of catching up to do to match Ferguson’s enormous haul of silverware, he still has plenty of years left in which to achieve it.
Indeed, if 52-year-old Pep was to continue winning things at the current rate, which will all depend on where his next assignment lies after City, he’ll far surpass Fergie’s total.