What’s it REALLY like to play for Pep?
Fly-on-the-wall TV series that reveals the secrets behind Manchester City’s glory boys
‘I don’t have all the answers, but I act in front of the players as if I do’
It’s like a dance across the dressing room. Pep Guardiola is pacing, hands in pockets. Forward five steps, back four. He circles the Manchester City crest on the floor, searching for the words, waiting for the point of maximum impact.
A controlled energy simmers inside. His squad have seen this before. they are 1-0 up against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final – 45 minutes from a first trophy under Guardiola — but realise their manager is approaching boiling point.
there is not a sound. Not a peep. the players gawp at him as he does another lap of the badge. they are on edge.
this is a man who, in this titlewinning season, has told them to hate him. the intensity of the wait is almost as powerful as the words that follow.
Dressing rooms are noisy and everyone wants to have their say at half-time, but these players, coaching staff, kit men, physios, know the rules. there is only one commander-in-chief.
Before games, City’s players are encouraged to be animated and noisy to create adrenaline and positivity, but not now, not when Guardiola is holding court.
Leroy sane stands to attention. David silva stares his manager in the eye. Gabriel Jesus leans forward. Kevin De Bruyne shuts his eyes. Most are motionless.
then Guardiola starts to move, electrifying the room with his message. ‘I know it is difficult guys, because you want to win. I know,’ Guardiola says, slapping his hands together. ‘But you have to learn how to play football with courage.
‘the best thing about our season is that it doesn’t matter where we are or where we were, because we play with f****** character and courage. Don’t arrive at the final and then don’t do what we’ve done all season.’
Guardiola squats and the eyes in the room follow him. He will deliver his message and it will be absorbed.
then he rises and accelerates towards his trusty tactics board with its circular magnets that illustrate players.
Later on, in City’s expensive video suite, he still opts for the old- school tactics board to show how he wants his players to deal with Mo salah and Liverpool’s rapid attacks.
today at Wembley, City go on to win 3-0. they will later go on to break the record for most points in a Premier League season — 100, beating Chelsea’s 2004-05 record by five — most wins (32) and most goals (106).
the manager takes the majority of the credit. If the words do not sink in, the energy with which they are articulated certainly does and, having seen that clip, it is no surprise Arsenal were blown away in the first 20 minutes of that cup final’s second half.
the essence of the 76- second team talk, the feverish delivery after the stalking of the room, are captured perfectly by Amazon, whose season trailing Guardiola did not go to waste. Manchester City: All or Nothing hits Amazon Prime tomorrow and plots the club’s record-breaking campaign. It peels back the layers of Guardiola’s lair.
Guardiola has apparently attended meetings with broadcast executives, yet the footage here suggests the Catalan was not overly precious about the final product.
‘I don’t have all the answers, but when I don’t know something, I act in front of the players as if I do,’ Guardiola reveals. ‘I do it so they believe I have the answer. sometimes they ask me about life and then you must adopt the role of a father, a brother or son. I just try to give them the best advice.’
Back to the drama. We go down the stamford Bridge tunnel on september 30, take a right and enter the away dressing room.
Kit man Brandon Ashton is dancing on a massage table, arms waving, orchestrating the scene. A bare-chested De Bruyne, scorer of a screeching winner in a statement victory at his former club Chelsea, bursts through the doors.
‘Oh, Kevin De Bruyne,’ rings out, team-mates converging on the player who captain Vincent Kompany describes as City’s quarterback. this is loud, this is boisterous. two yards from the scene is a man dressed in a grey Dsquared jumper and black trousers. Guardiola allows himself a moment to let go, then starts singing along. the camera pans to him, zooming in to capture his head bobbing and hands clapping. He goes over to hug Raheem sterling. Even the suited Marc Boixasa, the first- team manager in charge of logistics, is dancing. Guardiola likes it noisy, he likes it open. His phone rings. It is Benjamin Mendy, cooped up in a Barcelona hospital, on Facetime. the mobile is passed to Kyle Walker and John stones, sitting nearby, and they exchange celebratory yelps with the injured left back. Guardiola’s head pops out from behind a member of staff to check his property remains safe. ‘the locker room is the nicest place to be,’ Guardiola says in the first episode, premiered at Manchester’s Printworks last night. ‘When they make the jokes all together, when they criticise the manager, when they share the good and bad moments, I feel that animates the players more. ‘the problem last season (when City flopped in Guardiola’s first campaign) was a question of cockiness, arrogance. All great teams are arrogant. ‘the greats are capable of going anywhere and making the other team think, from the first minute, “s***, these guys have come here to win”.’ Guardiola does not
mind over-confidence. he was not bothered when city’s celebrations prompted Jose Mourinho to appear outside the away dressing room crying ‘disrespect’, sparking the Old trafford tunnel fracas in early December.
indeed, Guardiola had been disappointed that a 5-0 thrashing of Liverpool was not enjoyed to the fullest by his squad.
he let them know. Mendy sent him a text shortly afterwards, saying: ‘Don’t worry coach, i will take care of my team.’
they call Guardiola ‘the genius’ and the eight amazon episodes shine a light on his emotions and provide a window into his whirlwind mind.
that first season of failure at city hurt him mentally, chairman Khaldoon al Mubarak explains in the series.
De Bruyne points out that the detail shines through. When city fly back from champions League away matches, the apple light on the lid of Guardiola’s laptop is often the only ray in the cabin.
he sits, studies and takes his findings to a small auditorium along one corridor of the city Football academy.
THERE is the tactics board again — an oldfashioned prop in the digital age — and the counters whizz and glide.
the room can seat around 40 people and players are transfixed by the board, by Guardiola tapping it and manoeuvring magnets, particularly before that Liverpool win as he highlights the threat of salah and sadio Mane.
Likewise, he can energise his staff at any given moment, whispering ideas in the run-up to big matches, as seen when discussing how to nullify christian eriksen before city’s defeat of tottenham in December.
that was the month that Guardiola must have known his first english league title was effectively sealed.
‘We are the best team in the world,’ he tells his players. and, crucially, they are trained to believe him.
Just look into their eyes when he speaks.