Moments that stick with Pep

PEP Guardiola raised a few eyebrows when he claimed that Manchester City’s 1-1 home draw against Liverpool was “one of the happiest days of my career”.

Here, Guardiola revealed exclusively to The Daily Telegraph the other magic moments that make up his career highlights.

2) “I remember a recent training session with Claudio Bravo. The strikers are shooting, the ball is going through Claudio’s hands, through his legs, into the net. Every time, he picks the ball out of the net and immediately passes it back. One touch – pim! – straight to the coach’s feet. Purpose, vision, aggression, balls. This is how football should be. This is why he is the best goalkeeper in the world.”

3) “I will never forget the team talk Johan Cruyff gave us before the 1994 European Cup final against Milan. He was always giving us little pieces of wisdom or tactical advice in the changing room. ‘Always face forwa he said before that game. ‘If you are facing your own goal, and you keep running, eventually you will concede a corner.’ That was the genius of Cruyff: he made you see football in a whole new way. We lost the game 4-0, but that was not important.”

4) “Last summer, very early in the morning, I am looking out of my office window – a strong, aggressive look, not an idle glance – and what do I see? A flock of seagulls on the training pitch. Now, this is truly exceptional. We are not near the ocean in Manchester. It is a miracle, no? And this will astonish you: the seagulls had arranged themselves in a perfect high defensive block, 2-3-23. How is this possible? Did they know the project I was working on at Bayern? It would not surprise me.”

5) “Sometimes in coaching, there is a moment when everything becomes clear. Soon after my move to Munich, I want to speak with Philipp Lahm about parking arrangements at the training ground. I open the door of my office, and who is passing at that exact moment? Lahm! Phenomenal anticipation. Exceptional intelligence. Commanding the space. That was when I knew I had to build my Bayern team around him.”

6) “People say I exaggerate. They say I make sweeping statements that are clearly absurd and have no basis in reality. For me, this is the most disgusting thing you can say about another human being. This brings me to Bojan, without doubt the greatest footballer I ever managed. Once at Barcelona, he knocks on my door. I think: he is complaining about something. He wants more money, or he wants to play less on the bench. Instead, he shows me a picture of his newborn son, and asks me to be the godfather. I recalled this moment very fondly the day I sold him to Roma.”

7) “I will be honest with you. I still think about those seagulls every day.”

8) “Earlier this season, Yaya Touré was not playing for a while, so I decided to visit him. When I arrived, it was clear he had not left the house for many weeks. He was still wearing his pyjamas, watching BoJack Horseman on DVD and eating baked beans straight from the can. I could not believe my eyes. ‘Yaya, my brother,’ I said, hugging him tightly. But Yaya had a strange expression, like he did not understand why I was so happy. I was happy for one simple reason. Baked beans: lean protein. This is why I always say sport is the best form of education.”— The Daily Telegraph