Guardiola has won war with Mourinho – just ask ‘unfashionable’ Dyche

Tottenham manager once set the standard for all to follow, now clubs want bold attacking coaches in style of his fierce rival

It feels like we have been denied the greatest heavyweight contest of the Premier League era. Pep Guardiola versus Jose Mourinho was supposed to be English football’s fight of the century – the manager of the 2000s against the coach of the past 10 years.

After their meetings in La Liga, and box-office encounters in the Champions League when Mourinho was at Inter Milan, Guardiola’s arrival at Manchester City felt like the start of another series of season-defining confrontations. All we had to do was settle ourselves down and wait for the fireworks.

Sadly, the infernos that raged when they were in Spain have never sparked in this country. Their meeting tomorrow must rank as one of the least consequential of their managerial careers, Mourinho trying to get Tottenham Hotspur into the top four, Guardiola consolidating City’s position in it.

Mourinho must yearn for the days when he was leading a team with genuine aspirations to win a league title, when he could use his press conferences to get under his rivals’ skin.

There was a prolonged period when emerging managers wanted to be

Jose, studying and replicating his blueprint.

Now they want to be

Pep. Wherever you look around Europe there are owners seeking Guardiola disciples. If you want to appear like a modern coach or an innovator, make yourself sound like Guardiola.

We see and hear it in England at the highest level, with Arsenal appointing Mikel Arteta. We identify it in those fighting to stay in the division with Brighton and Hove Albion headhunting Graham Potter and dismissing Chris Hughton.

Where Mourinho’s brand of pragmatic, winning football earned the admiration of the sporting world at Porto, Chelsea and Inter, Guardiola’s idealistic approach changed it. Supporters will no longer tolerate what they perceive as a cautious, defensive style. They have seen how City play and, while not expecting the same level from their players, at least demand comparable ambition from the man on the touchline.

It is not enough to pack defences and play counter-attack every week any more, no matter how admirable such an approach can be when at its most productive.

Rightly or wrongly, it has affected the job opportunities for those managers who are perceived to be more like Mourinho than Guardiola. They find themselves on the wrong side of the trend.

Look at Sean Dyche at Burnley. Being dubbed the “Ginger Mourinho” was once the ultimate compliment, seemingly guaranteed to earn him a job at a bigger club.

Instead, as attractive vacancies have come and gone, his face has been deemed not to fit.

There are countless examples of managers with

proven