I have never experienced anything like what he did

IN 2014 I was the general manager of the Norway team and I wanted to take our coach to study one of the best clubs, so Bayern Munich let me follow them closely during their winter break at their training camp in Doha, Qatar.

I have played professionally in four countries, I have studied many other big clubs. But I have never experienced anything like I did in those five days with Pep Guardiola. The intensity and the speed of the training sessions stunned us. And in the middle of everything, Guardiola, instructing his players on details, using his football language, his body language, his whole knowledge of the game to deliver his message.

And how the players responded. Every exercise seemed a matter of life and death. And for Guardiola it is. A member of the Bayern coaching staff told me that he once called at 3.30am to discuss an idea he had in terms of a tactical move.

Maybe not everyone quite got Guardiola in England. It was easy to look at the players he coached; such as Lionel Messi, Xavi, Philipp Lahm or Thomas Muller and think he was just in the right place. Or perhaps they thought the Bundesliga was weak.

After all, in his first season Guardiola’s Bayern won by 19 points. It all seemed too easy and his first year in the Premier League suggested as much. Some English fans even seemed happy that their league had destroyed the myth. Not so now.

Today, Manchester City can equal Bayern’s record of 19 consecutive wins in one of the major European leagues. Manchester City will win the Premier League. The only question is will they be more than 20 points clear by the end of the season?

When judging a manager’s achievement you ask yourself: “How many players does he make better? How many players take the next step?” That’s his biggest quality.