EUROPE STILL TARGET
football – and sport in general – so interesting.
But let’s pose one simple question. If Guardiola isn’t the best manager in the world after all, then who the hell is?
We should all be grateful for what he has brought to English football this season because he has moulded a side like no other.
Yet even managers like Guardiola need to keep on proving themselves, because he is one of those elite few who are judged on success at the highest level.
Ruthless
Billionaire owner Khaldoon Al-Mubarak didn’t lure Guardiola to Manchester to watch him win domestic titles and League Cups.
Roberto Mancini was capable of that and so was Manuel Pellegrini, but it wasn’t enough for the ruthless Al-Mubarak, who wanted someone who could turn his club into the kings of Europe.
Having spent more than £1.5bn, Al-Mubarak wants to win the European Cup. He is in danger of being short-changed.
Winning the Champions League is the ultimate test of a manager, as the great Sir Alex Ferguson discovered at United. Even Fergie only managed to win it twice in nearly 30 years and relied on huge slices of luck in the process.
But Guardiola cannot rely on luck to get past Klopp’s side at the Etihad, because overcoming a 3-0 deficit requires much more.
It requires Guardiola to prove he is the genius we think he is and come up with a master plan that somehow results in success, despite the odds being stacked against him.
It requires Guardiola to energise his players in the wake of two crushing defeats and put them in the right frame of mind to execute his plan.
Former Bayern Munich doctor Hans Muller-Wohlfahrt claims Guardiola’s biggest fear is not losing games, but losing his power and control.
He might have a point. Guardiola hasn’t won club football’s biggest prize in almost a decade and hasn’t even reached a final since leaving Spain to manage abroad.
That record needs to change before the last remaining doubts about him are banished for good – and the road to immediate redemption starts on his own doorstep tomorrow.