Is Pep the greatest manager of all time?

heraklion

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He'll never be considered the greatest cos he's never done it with a small club.

Carragher said the same. Fergie's achievement with Aberdeen will top anything Pep does in his career.
This Aberdeen story is so overrated.

Those European Cup you're talking about, teams like Dinamo Tbilisi, Carl Zeiss Jena, Standard Liege, Rapid Wien, Fortuna Dusseldorf, Austria Wien, Goteborg, Dundee United, Videoton etc. were playing finals during that period. That's not to say Aberdeen's win is not impressive, but it's very common to see similar teams at the finals.

We even had teams like Steaua, Red Star winning UCL those years (in fact Steaua played two UCL finals in a span of 3-4 years).
 

heraklion

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No he didn't. It's not like SAF had one freak season like Ranieri did with Leicester. He broke up the old firm dominance then went and won a European Cup with Aberdeen. He's still the last manager in football to beat Real Madrid in a European final.
As if that Real is the same Real we had in the 2000s.

He's still the only manager of a top-team in the UCL history facing Real 3 times in the UCL knockouts, losing all three. You'd expect if he did it with Aberdeen, he should have definitely done at United against Real.
 

kaiser1

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This Aberdeen story is so overrated.

Those European Cup you're talking about, teams like Dinamo Tbilisi, Carl Zeiss Jena, Standard Liege, Rapid Wien, Fortuna Dusseldorf, Austria Wien, Goteborg, Dundee United, Videoton etc. were playing finals during that period. That's not to say Aberdeen's win is not impressive, but it's very common to see similar teams at the finals.

We even had teams like Steaua, Red Star winning UCL those years (in fact Steaua played two UCL finals in a span of 3-4 years).
Any knockout competition competition throws such odd results
Edin Terzic who many on this forum don't know of is 90mins away from winning the CL

I am waiting for how Terzic will suddenly become the greatest manager of all time for winning the CL with an underdog like DiMatteo or Avram Grant without a coaching badge was a Terry kick from winning
 

Dannn411

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Yeah, right. Pep's teams never went out in the UCL group stage to teams like Benfica, Basel, Goteborg, Villareal, Lille, Galatasaray (pre-group stage) despite having a superior squad unlike SAF. In 2005 in a group with Lille, Benfica and Villareal, they finished last. In 2012, United went out in the group stage again behind Basel and Benfica. This is more than embarrassing. Many times, United got eliminated in the 2nd round in the CL right after the group stage as well. And, I forgot the number of times United faced early elimination every time they faced Real Madrid under SAF, probably 3-4 times.

Not to mention Pep's teams are way more dominant on the field than any other manager's regardless of whether they lose or not, nobody comes close.



Pep's winning percentage alone makes him an absolute legend in Bundesliga. There's a reason why a ruthless club like Bayern didn't want him to leave while showing Ancelotti the door after the 1st season, not even tolerating treble winner Flick, firing Nagelsmann before the season end and now Tuchel.

"He won 82 out of 104 games, a win percentage of 80.4 which destroyed that of his closest challenger, Ottmar Hitzfeld (58.4%)."

"Guardiola’s Bayern scored a record 254 goals in 102 league matches while conceding just 58. They also kept 59 clean sheets - another record."

"His side also set a record for earning the most points in the first half of the season, taking an astonishing 47 from a possible 51. "

"wrapping up the title in March 2014 after 27 games, setting a new record for the fastest Bundesliga win and finishing the season with 90 points, 19 ahead of Jurgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund in second."

"Since the Catalan swapped Bavaria for Manchester, Carlo Ancelotti and Niko Kovac lasted little more than a year."

www.goal.com/en-us/lists/guardiola-didnt-fail-bayern-munich-not-winning-champions-league-man-city/bltc3b576b91f22d2b6
Heynckes and Flick are greater Bayern Managers than Pep.
 

2mufc0

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He is one of the GOATS.
 

Tom Van Persie

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As if that Real is the same Real we had in the 2000s.

He's still the only manager of a top-team in the UCL history facing Real 3 times in the UCL knockouts, losing all three. You'd expect if he did it with Aberdeen, he should have definitely done at United against Real.
Well yeah see Nani's disgraceful red card in 2013.
 

11101

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Yes. Would you not?



I went to BBC sport and it's the top story. May be different depending on country. What's the top story on yours?
Cricket. I'm in the UK.

The only mention of City is in the live reporting page. Even Klopp has his own article.
 

Tom Van Persie

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Aberdeen competed with 2 big teams, Leicester competed with how many big teams?
Spurs and maybe Arsenal were the only real challengers which says it all. The rest of the big teams had an off year.

And again it's not nearly the same. Aberdeen won multiple league titles, domestic cups and a European trophy over a number of seasons. Leicester only did it in one freak season.
 

Swedish_Plumber

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Aberdeen competed with 2 big teams, Leicester competed with how many big teams?
Still the last team to beat Madrid in a European final too… A top league and cup manager. Longevity is such an underrated measuring stick when it comes to these discussions/debates too.

I’m sure there are other examples out there that put your claim in and amongst the best achievements rather than the top. What Ranieri did deserves to be highly rated.

You’ve just got to take a look at this season for a ridiculous managerial achievement! Not too far from your club either:p
 

90 + 5min

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Great manager but there is that elephant in the room we all waiting for to be dealt with.
 

kaiser1

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Spurs and maybe Arsenal were the only real challengers which says it all. The rest of the big teams had an off year.

And again it's not nearly the same. Aberdeen won multiple league titles, domestic cups and a European trophy over a number of seasons. Leicester only did it in one freak season.
Chelsea Arsenal Liverpool Man Utd City Spurs at least 12 teams are bigger than Leicester

Ranieri took them from the brink of relegation to a title
 
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Tom Van Persie

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Chelsea Arsenal Liverpool Man Utd City Spurs at least 12 teams are bigger than Leicester

Ranieri took them from the bring of relegation to a title
Which is a great achievement nobody is denying that but he didn't have sustained success there like SAF did at Aberdeen so I'm not sure why you keep pretending like they are similar.
 

Sylar

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Chelsea Arsenal Liverpool Man Utd City Spurs at least 12 teams are bigger than Leicester

Ranieri took them from the bring of relegation to a title
Leicester didn't compete with those teams that year. Unless we're just naming big clubs now? Or are we adding the two in terms of competing and big teams?


Also Ranieri didn't take them from the brink of relegation. Their form when they survived was amazing and it continued when ranieri took over so credit to him. But bizarre to make these statements like this
 

Maluco

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Way, way, way, way too much controversy for him to ever be considered the greatest.

Lots of managers have achieved far greater feats with far fewer resources with none of the controversy.

By the time we know the full story, I don’t think his legacy will be favorable.
 

Taribo's Gap

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Great manager but there is that elephant in the room we all waiting for to be dealt with.
Is this really going to make that much of a difference in the long run? It's not like people who think City have cheated and Pep is tarred will all of a sudden change tune if they are found not guilty. It's just a part of his story regardless of what happens "officially" and people will make judgments as they see fit. Like great Juventus players and managers and even someone like Maradona, this stuff tends to fade over time.
 

Taribo's Gap

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Way, way, way, way too much controversy for him to ever be considered the greatest.

Lots of managers have achieved far greater feats with far fewer resources with none of the controversy.

By the time we know the full story, I don’t think his legacy will be favorable.
Like Maradona?
 

RedStarUnited

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It would have been great to see how Fergy would have faired against him in the league. It is forgotten now but when Jose first came he really took the league to another level. I remember thinking back then that we were not going to win another title for a long long time.
 

Andersonson

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It's the league titles. He won three times in a Glasgow dominated league, nobody other than Rangers or Celtic have won it since he left
And that's a massive feat. SAF is one of the all time greats, and maybe even the greatest. But Pep is a shout too, and a very legimate one
 

Zen86

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It would have been great to see how Fergy would have faired against him in the league. It is forgotten now but when Jose first came he really took the league to another level. I remember thinking back then that we were not going to win another title for a long long time.
He would have been as financially disadvantaged as anyone else, but he did have a habit of making teams greater than the sum of its parts.
 

RedStarUnited

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He would have been as financially disadvantaged as anyone else, but he did have a habit of making teams greater than the sum of its parts.
The sums of money we have spent in the last decade, give that to Fergy and we would have put up a real challenge to Pep.

Our financial disadvantage has been in the utilisation of funds, we have spent enough to have a better squad than we do.
 

Yakuza_devils

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No. 115 Manager should be put to shame. Cheating much be punished severely. This is Lance Armstrong of football.

If he has achieved that with a proper club then he is one of the GOAT.
 

Piyush

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No, Doing it for 26 years without financial doping. Guardiola left Barcelona as soon as pressure got better of him. Similar at Bayern.
Guardiola is best of this generation, but not better than Fergie.
 

stefan92

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Factually correct and it's not even close between them.
True. And Flick is a terrible manager. Still he delivered the greatest run of form any team has ever had and won everything possible. Even more impressive in style than Pep's Barca.
 

Zen86

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The sums of money we have spent in the last decade, give that to Fergy and we would have put up a real challenge to Pep.

Our financial disadvantage has been in the utilisation of funds, we have spent enough to have a better squad than we do.
Well, no it hasn’t. We haven’t spent money very well, but we have nowhere near as much resource as an oil-rich state.
 

Chumpsbechumps

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What manager has had all the resources and quality players pep has had his entire career ? What has he done that he shouldn’t have done with the resources at his disposal ?
 

Red the Bear

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Those saying fergie had a big financial advantage compared to others don't see the bigger picture as I think even before Chelsea came along we were outspent by the likes of Blackburn, Newcastle and even Liverpool , had we been able to capitalise on our so called advantage we might have been able to get the likes of shearer, batistuta and others and considering how razor thin the race for some of those titles were god knows how many more titles we may have ended up with, not to mention how when we sold Ronaldo for a record fee we never bought a suitable replacement and ended up losing two league titles by the way of a single point and goal difference.
 

Demyanenko_square_jaw

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I find it very difficult to compare managers from 90s and earlier to more recent ones. The club structures and support network around a modern manager (especially from late 00s) is just vastly larger. The access and advice related to data analysis simply can't be compared.