Blues not ready yet
PEP GUARDIOLA has revealed playing under his mentor Johan Cruyff at Barcelona was like going to school every day.
The Manchester City manager won the Champions League playing for the Dutch coach in 1992 – and then evolved his methods as the head coach at the Nou Camp.
And the Catalan (right) said: “Johan Cruyff was the most important person I worked with, he opened my eyes with his style of football.
“He helped us all understand a different way of looking at football. It was like going to school every day. Every morning we would do something different.
“We would win and he’d tell us the reason we were winning. He made us fall in love with the game. With Arrigo Sacchi, he is the person who has changed football the most.
“It’s no coincidence that so many players who worked under Sacchi and Cruyff are now coaches because their minds were opened. They gave us new love for the sport.”
Guardiola won 14 major trophies in four seasons at Barcelona but said he wasn’t the man responsible for their famous brand of football.
“I didn’t invent tiki-taka,” he said. “We won the Champions League with Barcelona and a team full of players who had started in the academy at the age of 8-10. It happens once in a lifetime. We were lucky enough to live it, it was a great pleasure. “To be honest, I don’t really like tiki-taka much as a concept. It seems to be playful but it is not. The secret is the pressing that allowed us to send opponents where we wanted. We’ll see if they still talk about it in 20 years, much like they do with great books or movies.”
Speaking at the Festival Of Sport in Italy alongside Sacchi and Carlo Ancelotti, Guardiola was asked if he might ever coach in Serie A. “Why not?” he said. “I didn’t see myself in Germany or learning German and yet that’s what happened.”
Asked if there was one thing he would steal from Napoli boss Ancelotti, Guardiola quipped: “His hair!” FROM BACK PAGE
2016, said: “If we are favourites it means we are good, really good.
“But the best the club has done is a semi-final and I don’t know if we are ready, to be honest. When you believe you can win, then you have to do it.
“AC Milan, who will soon return to the Champions League, have won it seven times.
“The favourites are the clubs with a bigger history and tradition than us. Real Madrid (above, celebrating winning in 2018) and Barcelona and also Juventus have been to the final twice recently and are getting closer every time.”