In the end it came down to a business decision.
Manuel Pellegrini, the club’s 62-year-old Chilean manager who guided the team to its second Premier League title in 2014, announced on Monday that he would leave at the end of the season and be replaced by Pep Guardiola, the ingenious architect of what was arguably the best team in soccer history. It was simply a matter of replacing a good, older manager with a younger, better one, and were it not for the stature of his replacement, we’d all be raving at the injustice of it all
Manchester City paid an exorbitant sum to get him — early reports suggest Pep will earn somewhere in the region of $30 million per year — but more than anything, it signals the arrival of far greater.
Manchester City have been drowning in money since Sheikh Mansour, whose estimated net worth is north of $20 billion, bought the club in 2008. Yet the club has always felt like something of an underdog in English soccer.
Comparisons have been made to Chelsea — who themselves were enhanced when billionaire owner Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003 — but those who do conveniently forget Chelsea were already relatively successful when Abramovich swooped in. Manchester United, meanwhile, boasted more fans and a bigger trophy cabinet than City.
(Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Manchester City grew from no such base, but like the New York Yankees did for so long before them, they were willing to spend whatever it took. Mansour’s money has dragged them along until now, finally, they have arrived. Now, Manchester City are the overdogs of English soccer.
Guardiola may only be there for three years or so, but he will set into motion is a culture of intense, fast, entertaining, attacking soccer that will propel Manchester City past everyone. Pep will install a model, and with an incredible amount of money there to reinforce it, Manchester City will continue to thrive because of it.
It’s hard to see one of the greatest managers ever bombing-out at City — although anything could happen, I suppose — but that’s not to say that Guardiola’s teams can’t be beaten. They can, but it requires opponents being big, tough, defensive, and extremely tactically disciplined. Chelsea never lost to Guardiola’s Barcelona doing exactly that. Mourinho’s Real Madrid did something similar when his team claimed La Liga in 2012. Italy were the better side against the Spain side in the Confederations Cup in 2013. Guardiola’s aim is to dominate possession, but as Jonathan Wilson writes, in doing so he cedes control of position.
Teams adopting that style accept they are defining themselves in opposition to Manchester City, rather than seeking to set the tone themselves. Chelsea generally have no qualms about playing such role and are targeting Antonio Conte (whose favored system, coincidentally, holds up well against Pep’s philosophy) as one of the men to be its own new manager. But this may be particularly bitter pill for Manchester United to swallow. No longer can they set the ground rules. If they want to win, they need to react.
It’s a harsh reality check but it is, indeed, the new reality of the Premier League.
