FIFY (ten characters)
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Hahaha
Endsleigh Division 3
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Really? A man in âwriting an articulate opinion on a topic on a football forumâ shocker. Maybe we should just resort to posting gifs and one-liners all the time?
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Come to think about it, what was it that attracted Guardiola to City in the first place? Their great support, their rich history or the wonderful weather?
Heâs there only because he has access to a never-ending stream of money; both for himself and for any player he wants. He should just stop talking about it. Every time that he does his hypocrisy is seeping through.
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I watched his post-match interview on Motd on Sunday. He couldnât stay still for a second, was waggling around, just like cocaine addicts do.
Heâs a good football coach without a doubt, but a sad individual in my book.
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âDoth protest to much methinksâ
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Ah I fucking hope these cunts lose on Saturday
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He might be a good football coach, but itâs difficult to realistically assess the abilities of a man who only ever manages the biggest spenders in their leagues, i.e. Barcelona, Bayern Munich, shity.
How would he fare if that were not the case?
Letâs face it youâd have to be pretty shit not to win the odd league title after inheriting a team that had already cost the best part of ÂŁ1 billion to assemble, and then going on to spend an additional ÂŁ800 million in your five years at the club.
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To be fair this argument can be made about every top tier football manager ever
Not really. Not every coach got their first job at Barca, inheriting a winning team or their 2nd at Bayern, inheriting a winning team. Or their 3rd at City inheriting a winning team.
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This is his reply to why I think Pep isnât the greatest manager ever but is an excellent, excellent coach if he has a shed load of money to spend. As well as Pep never having started a project even at a big/rich club.
QUOTE starts "Iâm not counting domestic Super Cups (as I donât count Charity Shields), but we can if you want. In that case, Pep has 5 more trophies than I give him credit for.
So far, I see Zidane as someone clever, calm, able to keep a dressing room like Realâs happy, shows he can rotate well players/systems. But to be fair, regardless of 9 trophies for Real and 2 league titles among it, not for one period did I think that Real side is outstanding in terms of how they perform. They remain a bunch of high quality individuals rather than a high quality team. I guess weâll have to see more of him somewhere else. That question is for me more valid than for Pep when he was leaving Barca, although I was also very interested at the time what and how he does somewhere else next.
Trophies are important, but not the only important of course. I wrote a lot about Pep here in last days/weeks. Itâs also a question mark that doesnât exist anymore, which was maybe a hope for people who were/are Mourinho lovers but Pep haters (and again, I donât see why we need to separate instead of saying that both are the most successful modern coaches). âNice football, but doesnât get you any trophies, or at least outside Barca/Spain/Germany/EnglandâŠâ. Heâs highly influential with âhisâ (no, didnât invent it, but mastered it, just like Klopp didnât invent his style of football) football and brought his culture in all places heâs been. Sometimes more successful, sometimes less. But consistently well.
Sure, he didnât takeover Liverpoolâs 2015 team like Klopp, but to be precise, half of that City team was near itâs cycle or well finished when he took over. Their purchases improved a lot, even if he had people upstairs from Barca over there, they mustâve worked together. And a lot of those werenât finished product players, though a lot of them were already very good. Fantastic talents and already of certain quality, yes. In full back areas he went a little bit against himself, proving that heâs not that stubborn, when maybe he shouldâve been in that case. We had a lot more to sell, they had to move out some players who couldnât generate much money anymore. We canât deny that City is financially brilliant during that time and not only that, some strategically good decisions inside that club (weâve seen other rich owners have money, but focus too much on spending it on top finished article players). Also some fishy stuff off the pitch in last years. But the profile of purchases is sometimes exaggerated in the context of time. A lot of those are made out like they were best players in their positions at the time, which is not really true.
Careful about the timing, okay, everyone naturally tries to be, how many times and how long can you be careful and lucky? As years go by and he remains probably the most wanted coach out there and successful, I think it will only prove that it takes a bit more than being careful about when to accept a certain job. You first have to be offered one. And then keep those jobs by providing almost constant success and keep attracting them. I donât see a lot of other coaches doing the same. Iâd like to, but I donât, sorry. Others need time of course, Iâm patient and willing to give them. Iâm not trying to draw a line here, football goes on and opinions will change.
Take Ancelotti, par example, who we can say is in that company in last years. Highly successful, universally likeable (almost like Klopp). Yet, of his 15 major trophies, he only won 4 leagues in his career at the top level (so far). One with Milan, one with Chelsea, one with PSG, one with Bayern. He has managed some top clubs. And the league is the bread and butter for me and a lot of people. Yet, I donât see a lot of people questioning that, like they do with Pep and the CL (I wonder what will be next when/if he wins it a few more times, probably his baldy head). Probably itâs because heâs good old grandpa Carlo (and I repeat, I like him very much, both as a character and manager). Conclusion? Itâs maybe not that simple and easy?
I donât think we can categorically say that Pep will not manage anything less than a top side. Sure, he said he doesnât see himself very long in the game, but that can also change with time. Not long ago, we couldâve said the same about Mourinho. Weâve seen quite a few coaches who had their careers at one, a few or only at big clubs. What he is also though, heâs cynic and sarcastic. Not good in the media, I totally understand why heâs not likeable to a lot of people, but that part doesnât interest me as much as on the pitch. He clearly doesnât enjoy press conferences, especially when itâs the same old crap questions. He canât hide it and is nowhere near able as Klopp (or Mourinho) to turn it into a 200mph humoristic monologue and leave journalists with no answers back.
I get your point, but to me thatâs not fair enough towards Mourinho and Pep and the rest of similar calibre in any era. Why a bunch of other coaches failed before/after places they went and delivered? I love Rafa and perhaps he got the sack a bit too soon at Real (not the first one to do so), but canât we admit that there were also probably a few good reasons to do it? Perhaps he wasnât such a great candidate in the first place (after his latest stuff at Napoli at the time, it was like Real run out of options and just went ânext, next, nextâ, Rafa was always going to get one chance), like he wouldâve been maybe mid/end 00âs? Maybe his ceiling wasnât as high as Joseâs or Pepâs? Absolutely no shame in that, if thatâs the case. Iâm not saying some place, somewhere, Rafa is able to coach and lead a top, top side to multiple titles. But perhaps heâs less able than some others and itâs not about âI want projects like Valencia, Liverpool and Napoli and never really wanted options like Inter, Chelsea and especially Realâ. I donât think itâs how it works, for me, thatâs just fairy tales for kids. Rafa would probably stay 10 years at Real if he couldâve done. Itâs his club. Probably start at Real when he worked alongside Del Bosque, like Pep at Barca. Who wouldnât? But not everyone can. Football makes mistakes, but in the long run, quality prevails.
I think itâs natural that masses of fans care more about the âpoorâ and âoh, theyâre not getting chancesâ, but the poor here arenât poor in my books. Need to look somewhere else, much lower down the football pyramid, to have those battles if we need them. Some of those have been in the job for years and years and you only have a few who have really not only survived but provided at the very top level. A lot of the time a coach/manager doesnât even have time to accomplish everything in all the top leagues. Itâs just called circumstances. There are a thousand managers and a few elite/rich clubs. I have no doubt that there are a lot who could do a job and in different ways, but get overlooked. I just think what Pep did so far since his first day in the job and still doing is not normal, that doesnât happen very often in football and I think itâs much more difficult a lot of people say. Yes, itâs also difficult in itâs own way on a different level for Dyche to keep Burnley up on peanuts.
Like I said, would Fergusonâs career at the end be much different if you erased his successes at Aberdeen? I bet you that more than half of football masses donât even know what he did there. Perhaps that he ever was there. But regardless of that, although heâs another rare example that simply isnât normal and who knows if it will be possible in the future, what else can we say about him without bias other than he was one of if not the best manager of his time and one of all times?
There are different difficulties, different levels and types of glories in football. Iâm not saying we should only glorify the likes of Ferguson and Pep. I like someone like Bielsa par example, but maybe we also overrate him a little bit as a coach? Maybe the myth around the man is higher than his real capabilities? That wouldâve brought him to a top side at some point in his career? I think so. Is he âlocoâ enough to keep rejecting them? With someone like him, maybe, just maybe, but during his whole career? Nah, I donât think so. Then, why? Maybe heâs too radical for a top side? Probably. For the majority of things, I think there are good reasons why it happened and still happens and us fans sometimes out of boredoom and need for a story or conspiracy need to question absolutely everything or overdramatize. I donât think it happens only in football, but the best are always zoomed in to the tiniest detail. Maybe another proof why they are among the best.
QUOTE finishes.
You call it an articulated opinion, I call it war and peace.
A man disagrees with another poster on a forum shocker. Perhaps less is more sometimes.
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Which ironically enough you just did.
Itâs OK to disagree with someone but I find it childish to call them out for laying out their opinion in a detailed manner, especially when youâre new in town and they are not. You didnât need to quote his whole post, by the way, as Iâve already read it. I disagree with Zoranâs opinion of Guardiola when it comes to finances as well but this place has always been welcome to hear different opinions - as long as it was respectful towards other. We admins intend to keep it that way.
Actually, itâs two lines on my PCâs monitor.
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I know I didnât need to quote it all. Itâs called making a point.
It was a bit of irony saying war and peace but obviously lost.
And it was detailed Iâll give you that but it was all over the show, meandering in to different topics (just my opinion of course).
And using the new in town vs old timer argument, really?
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Yeah, really. When in Rome, be respectful and all that, I honestly donât think itâs too much to ask.
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This is not a winning team. They were further away from winning at that time than the current side is and I think the job of turning that around was arguably bigger than the current one given the status of the players the side had been built around who were no longer performing.
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Dog with a bone and mountain out of a molehill are the sayings that come to mind.
The Anfield Noise is new. So weâre all newcomers to this particular forum.
I can think Zoran can argue his own points pretty good, not sure he needs a bodyguard.
And wow, me commenting on the lack of brevity with regard to his posts about his love for Pepâs guide on how to be an amazing coach on a shoestring by saying âwar and peaceâ is disrespectful? Well I canât really write what I think about that in this wimpy PC society.
Sort of. The precursor to Anfield Noise was the Forum on This is Anfield. While this forum is new, a lot of people here have known each other for many years.
My own opinion on Pep is that he is very good at what he does, albeit what he does needs someone to throw a shit load of money at him.
Could he do the job Moyes has done at West Ham? Probably not, but then Moyes couldnât do the job that Pep has done at City, and we know that because when Moyes had a job like that he made a right fucking mess of it.
So I donât agree with a lot of what Zoran says, but attacking him rather than his opinion, and making cheap digs about the length of his post isnât a good look, and you did ought to have a think about this, cos thatâs two admins now that have told you youâre out of line.
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In fairness to Moyes, he did have Ed Woodward as his boss, so you could say he was operating with both hands tied behind his back.
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Real Madrid won the league in the 02-03 season
Barca won the league in 04-05 & 05-06 and the Champions league 05-06 season.
Real Madrid won the league in the 06-07 & 07-08 seasons.
Who won the league in the 03-04 season? Neither Barca or Real. Which was very rare as in total
Real Madrid = 34 times
Barcelona = 26 times.
Next comes AM = 11 times.
Almost as if that league is a 2 horse race.
Barcaâs 2007 team most appearances:
Valdes, Zambrotta, Puyol, Abidal, Milito, Xabi, Iniesta, Yaya TourĂ©, Terry Henry, Messi and Etâo.
Subs bench: Deco, Ronaldinho, Thuram etc.
Yeah poor Pep! What a crap team he had to start with.