Pep Talk E-Book

Giles Elliott

• Herausgeber: Elliott & Thompson
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 54

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

'If we lose, we will continue to be the best team in the world. If we win, we will be eternal.'Pep Guardiola Pep Talk celebrates the best witticisms, sayings, and insults from Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, accompanied by 20 illustrations of the great man himself. Josep Pep Guardiola, is widely regarded as one of the best football managers in the world. Having been unearthed as a player by Barcelona manager Johan Cruyff, he was part of the Barcelona 'dream team' of the 1990s that won four consecutive La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994. As manager of Barcelona, he won 14 cup before taking over at Bayern Munich and then in 2016 he joined Manchester City where he has won a further 8 trophies. The perfect gift for all Manchester City football club fans and casual followers of the greats of the game

Leseprobe

‘Children very young, they must play, just play. Play and play and play and play, just play.’

PEP GUARDIOLA

‘Pep’s work goes beyond something tangible. The legacy he leaves in his teams is much more about the “how” than the “what”. That is why he is so special. Pep’s ability is to transmit, to convince others, and to reach the mind of the footballer. The way he communicates drags everyone towards his way of playing. The most complicated thing for a coach is not preparing the strategy – it’s touching heartstrings. He is a master at that.’

MARCELLO LIPPI

PEP ON . . .

1.   FOOTBALL

2.   MANAGERS

3.   ENGLAND

4.   WINNING

5.   BARCELONA

6.   TACTICS

7.   THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

8.   MANCHESTER CITY

9.   PLAYERS

10. ITALY

11. MOTIVATION

12. GERMANY

13. LIFE

Acknowledgements

About the Author

‘Football is emotions. It’s tactics, definitely, but it’s also emotions. Without the ball, we are a team with desire and passion to regain the ball from the first minute to the 90th.’

‘There is one rule in football when you have the ball and that’s not to lose it.’

‘Luck doesn’t exist in football.’

‘Football is the simplest game in the world. The feet just have to obey the head.’

‘Each night when you are going to sleep, ask yourself if you like football or not; ask if right then, you’d get up, grab the ball and play for a bit. If the answer is no, that is the day to start looking for something else to do.’

‘When I was fourteen, I said I’d be a manager and win thirty titles. I’m so pleased to have been a part of incredible groups of people at Barça, Bayern and City. I’ll always be grateful. They are incredible numbers in a short time. I have a feeling that every time it gets more difficult. Achieving is so nice, so good.’

‘People always think the coach is the strongest person at a club, the boss, but in truth, he’s the weakest link. We’re there, vulnerable, undermined by those who don’t play, by the media, by the fans. They all have the same objective: to undermine the manager.’

‘Before every match I lock myself up in an office with pen and paper and watch two or three videos. I take lots of notes. That’s when that flash of inspiration comes – the moment that makes sense of my profession. The instant I know, for sure, that I’ve got it. I know how to win the match.’

‘The manager who wins is a genius and the manager who loses is a disaster. People still don’t understand that it doesn’t work that way. Sometimes you don’t win because the margins in that competition are so tight. If Sergio Ramos kicks the ball and they score the second goal, the City manager would have been a disaster and decisions from Zidane were perfect. That is why you must be calm and know exactly what happens in the games.We know it as a team.’

ON HIS MENTOR

‘This was how Johan Cruyff worked. He was demanding a lot, but when you got there, and you were in his team, he was an incredible protector. He would push and push you, and then he would protect you. He was a master at handling players.’

‘We all feel that hunger in football. With Cruyff, it was different. He deepened and changed the hunger, so you became conscious of why you are getting better.’

‘Cruyff is the trainer who made me suffer most. With just a look he gave you shivers that could chill the blood.’

AFTER RETIRING FROM PLAYING

‘Sooner or later I will be a coach. I’ll train any level offered to me. Someone just has to open the door and give me a chance. I’ve no pretensions that I’m ready to work at a higher level yet. This is a process, a learning curve. The first steps are vital and there are no second chances.’

‘I think when you are training at 72, it must be boring at home. Our job is nice. You are working with young people, athletes, in competition. Every game is different. Maybe that’s why Roy [Hodgson] and the other older managers do it. I am not going to retire next week or next year, but I don’t think I will still be a manager at that age.’

‘There are talks that just come to you and talks that begin from a few ideas based on what you have seen. What you can’t do is study the talks, learn them by heart. Two or three concepts are all you need, and then you have to put your heart into it.’

ON JOSÉ MOURINHO

‘José is the dog’s bollocks in front of the press. I can’t compete with him there. But I would remind him we were together for four years. I know him and he knows me . . .’

‘We’re similar in the sense that we both want to win, but apart from that . . . Our paths are very different.’

‘I know Mourinho only too well and he’s trying to provoke me into a reaction, but it won’t work. I’m not going to react. Only when the time is right.’

‘We will play a football game. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. Normally he wins, as his CV shows. We are happy with our smaller victories, which seem to have inspired admiration around the world.’

‘As Mr Mourinho has called me Pep, I will call him José. I don’t know which one is Mr José’s camera. They must be all of these. In this room he is the f**king boss, the f**king chief. He knows the ways of the world better than anyone else. I don’t want to compete with him in this arena, not even a second.’

AFTER MOURINHO RECOMMENDED PEP SHOULD GET A FIFTY-YEAR CONTRACT AT BARCELONA

‘Fifty years! Look how much hair I’ve lost after just two!’

‘With Mourinho, so many things have happened. So many things . . .’

‘Ego is the source of the majority of a team’s problems.’

AHEAD OF HIS HUNDREDTH BUNDESLIGA MATCH

‘I haven’t lost a lot here, I am sorry. But considering how little I lost, I have got a lot of stick. Not only me – others got it too, from Allegri to Conte, Capello, Sacchi, every one of them. Today in our profession, nobody gets any respect.’

ON MIKEL ARTETA

‘He is above, above, beyond a good manager. The character, the personality, leading . . . he is incredibly loved by all of us.’