‘Fergie Time’ talkat City a glowing tribute to Pep
Last-gasp victories a sure sign that Guardiola is getting most out of his elite group of players
IF IT should happen that Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City conjure another of their late victories at Old Trafford on Sunday – and virtually put a seal on the Premier League title – the mocking, triumphant cry of their supporters is as predictable as a workaday sneer from Jose Mourinho. It will, no doubt, be ‘Fergie Time’.
It will be partly about some healing of old wounds, of the noisy neighbours claiming ownership of the estate, mostly, though, with a special emphasis on one of the old United’s boss’s most famous 11th-hour tricks. But in at least one profound way it will also sail wide of the point.
Alex Ferguson certainly established in the course of 13 Premier League titles and two Champions League wins that every game had to be played to its last drop of sweat or blood.
However, he also believed that every player was accountable for every second of his working life.
A breakdown of professionalism in the first minute lingered as vividly as one in the last.
He went from one training session and one big game quite seamlessly.
He looked at his players with an intensity which demanded absolute commitment.
When this didn’t seem to be the natural-born obligation of the celebrated David Beckham he was on his way to Madrid.
And when Ferguson sensed a similar strain in Wayne Rooney at a certain point in his career disenchantment set in so fast that it stopped short only at a shocking transfer, a possibility that still brewed when the all-conquering manager decided to walk away at the end of another title-winning season. certainty of trust in the will of his players, a vital demand on continuity of effort. Guardiola has already conceded a certain debt of learning from the old warhorse’s talent for appearing to make time stand still at the end of a game he needed to win.
“If we can take something from ‘Fergie Time’,” he said before this week’s meaningless Champions League misadventure in Ukraine, it is welcome, a pleasure.”
More than anything, though, surely, it would be relief against United because the reality is that if City have played beautifully for much of the season there is no doubt that some of their more sublime rhythm has for the moment gone.
Sergio Aguero still struggles after his road accident. There is fitness speculation over David Silva. Kevin De Bruyne has, at least for a game or two, resembled something less than a young master of the football universe.
Against Shakhtar Donetsk a first defeat in 29 games was always going to be softened by top place in the group, and this was despite the fact
that the makeshift selection was valued at close to £300m (€343m). Yet winning is a habit and any kind of break in it is to be regretted, as Guardiola was also quick to concede.
He also might, even from the mighty citadel of his own record at the age of 46 – three La Liga and three Bundesliga titles and two Champions Leagues – recall another, wider piece of learning once offered to him by Ferguson.
It came nearly seven years ago when Guardiola was announcing his departure from Barcelona, who had just outplayed United in the 2011 Champions League final at Wembley.
United, and not least Ferguson, were stunned by the brilliance of Barca. He marvelled at the inventions of Lionel Messi, the drive of Xavi and the sheer nous of Andres Iniesta… and then he learned that the triumphant coach was considering a sabbatical, in New York, where he would reassess his future.
“I’m a lot older than Pep Guardiola, who is obviously a brilliant coach, so I don’t mind offering him one piece of advice.
“It is that the most talented of coaches can go through his whole career without having the kind of players that we saw perform today.
“Great coaches have made more than one great team but sometimes there is a group of players who announce that they are utterly special – and they may never come again.”
Ferguson’s predecessor Matt Busby once spoke similarly of his great triumvirate of George Best, Denis Law and Bobby Charlton.
“When you are a manager,” he said, “the greatest thing is to have players who you know are going to play well, doing everything you would wish.
CONFIDENCE
“You send them out on to the field with the greatest confidence and I was always relaxed when I had Denis and George and Bobby fit to play. I knew what they would do and that is the greatest feeling. To have one such player is a great bonus. To have three is a gift from God.”
Guardiola had his gift from above at the Nou Camp and though he took over at Bayern Munich for three seasons after he came back from his New York state of mind he didn’t have a Messi or an Iniesta and he didn’t win the Champions League.
Now he has Aguero and De Bruyne and David Silva and the currently under-performing Gabriel Jesus.
He has put together some arresting work, persuading some that he may be shaping the best team in Europe, but on Sunday against the wiles and the cynicism of Mourinho (eight league titles in four countries and two Champions Leagues) he faces one of his most critical tests.
The chances are that it will not be passed by some late adventure of Raheem Sterling or Aguero, but the concentrated effort of a team that has been coached back to the top of its game.
‘Fergie Time’ is all very well but as the old warrior would tell you himself, it’s not so enjoyable when you are the one who has to roll the dice.