I've said this before as well, Pep could very likely be our next manager as he should be done with Bayern and can once again take over from LVG. We're a very similar club to Bayern and Barca, mainly Bayern, in that we have a big youth focus, a lot of heritage and domestic domination and enough money to spend more than our rivals, even if we don't always do it. All clubs have huge followings, massive grounds and plenty of marketability, plus we all wear red in some way or other. Pep is the perfect fit for us. Problem is if City get there first.
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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I agree totally and for the bolded part, it will be a very big problem. Let's just hope Pep is a true footballing purist.
I'll be interested to see what happens to City's Pep dream if the former Barcelona directors get the flick.
If anything, I think it is more likely that Klopp will end up at City as opposed to Pep.
City doesn't seem like his sort of club, but they're building up a pretty major core of Spanish/Latin-American players which will probably be quite appealing to him. Money talks as well.
I would like to see how good this guy actually is.
Let's be honest he has managed the teams which are pretty much littered with the worlds best players, in leagues where there are only really 2 teams (maybe 3) that can win the title.
Not getting Bayern to the Semis (at least) would be a huge disappointment.
Let's be honest he has managed the teams which are pretty much littered with the worlds best players, in leagues where there are only really 2 teams (maybe 3) that can win the title.
Not getting Bayern to the Semis (at least) would be a huge disappointment.
It would be a disappointment for them, but it wouldn't tarnish Pep's credentials.
I dont know, I think it starts to. These things dont happen overnight. But he cant live off his achievements at Barca forever. For a manager at that level, treading water is going to gradually tarnish your reputation, only because it was so sparkly to start off with. For him to maintain that reputation he had at Barca he has to be proving his quality over and over again. Winning the league with Bayern is fine, its enough to maintain his reputation as a very good manager. But the longer he does without doing something special again, the less he looks special.
As I said it doesnt happen overnight. He could go out of the CL this season, if he does something great next season itll give him his luster back. But I think, already, he isnt quite as hot property as he was when he left Barca.
As I said it doesnt happen overnight. He could go out of the CL this season, if he does something great next season itll give him his luster back. But I think, already, he isnt quite as hot property as he was when he left Barca.
Guardiola feels like the natural successor, although I think we're to know that football seldom works the way you would expect it to. The phrase still scares me a bit from last season, but Guardiola and Van Gaal do look and feel like they're cut from the same kind of cloth. The hope is that the cloth is silky and smooth, and not the mouldy dish towel we were lumped with not too long ago.
Seriously, though, I think the club will be looking to put itself in a position whereby the manager isn't walking into the open job with a rebuild in front of them. As long as investment towards the playing squad and youth set up is consistent in line with the size of the club and its ambitions, then any incoming manager should get off to a more stable start than we have witnessed under both Moyes and Van Gaal.
Seriously, though, I think the club will be looking to put itself in a position whereby the manager isn't walking into the open job with a rebuild in front of them. As long as investment towards the playing squad and youth set up is consistent in line with the size of the club and its ambitions, then any incoming manager should get off to a more stable start than we have witnessed under both Moyes and Van Gaal.
Yeah and there are so many teams that can win the title in england..
Yeah but, can he do it on a cold, wet and windy Tuesday night in Stoke?
Come on, you know what I mean.
The Premier League, has always had 3 very strong teams, and then 2 or 3 that challenge and fall away.
There is absolutely no doubt that the Prem is harder to win with one of the bigger teams, over the German / Spanish league.
Not the spanish league in recent years, its harder to win La Liga id say. The top 3 teams in spain are better than the top 3 in england.
You've already seen how good he actually is.
Every top managers pat a top club gets great players to work with. That's why they go there in the first place. Mourinho got a blank cheque in his 1st stint at Chelsea, had a Italian league-dominating inter in Italy and had a team brim-full of top players at real.
Ancelotti at Chelsea, Milan and Madrid has had top players at his disposal. His league record is still a bit shit.
Sir Alex built success at the start, but once he became successful, didn't he always have plenty to spend and hence great players at his disposal most of the time? Still the great man just won 2 European cups.
It's amazing how dismissive people are about pep here.
Which 3 very strong teams are challenging for the league this year?
Well said. It seems when Pep's team wins the players get all the credit but when they lose its all Pep's fault. With other managers it seems the other way around. People are too harsh on Pep.
I'm probably the biggest Pep fan on here, but when Pep was our manager, La Liga was a two team league. Us or Madrid would have to feck the season up horribly to finish outside the top two. Now, it's a bit different.
That's why i said recent years. And most leagues including the PL has been a two horse race for the most part.
Although I prefer a faster paced style, given we're going down the lvg model of football, I reckon guardiola would be the ideal manager to succeed him and take that system to the next level.
Yes, but it's always been that way in England as well. It was us and arsenal first. Then sugar daddy funding made it us and Chelsea. Then further sugar daddy spending made it us and city. At the end of the day, one tended to fall away and become a bit irrelevant and you still have just two teams fighting it out. So it's not different from Spain. The only difference was that Spain had the same two teams whereas in England it changed once or twice. And it's only the foreign owners that have caused that to happen.
The downside in Spain is that you're still competing with a team like barca or real.
Never know, it depends a lot on timing, how long LVG will remain here and so on. For now im happy with LVG and like to see how far he can take us.
For the club's sake, even though I have my own tastes, you'd hope that this direction is a long term one. Really wouldn't make sense to start playing counter attacking football suddenly. You never know but it doesn't seem logical to me.
Im pretty this is a long term thing. LVG is laying the foundations and he only thinks long term. He predicted Barcelona to field an all home grown team way before it seemed remotely feasible and he was ridiculed for it. 10 years later he was proven right.
That's what I feel as well. Can't think of anyone better in that case than pep.
I cant remember where I read it, but I remember seeing that Pep used to intensify Barca's training in the winter months so that they are stronger in April/May. Maybe that isnt working for Bayern?
For the people who think Giggs will be our next manager. Does this conversation to possession football not undermine his claim? What is the use of knowing the club inside out, if the club has so fundamentally changed direction? Giggs grew up in a completely different Manchester United to the one that is currently being forged. Its another difference with Guardiola, the comparison people love to make. Guardiola was brought up in the Barca tradition, he embodied it and he was able to take it to another level as manager. Giggs was brought up in the 442 counter attacking traditions of United. The possession-based United is something completely new to him. Yes he has front row seats, as assistant manager, as it is being created, which is some kind of advantage. But still, it is not the same claim as it was when Moyes was in charge and our identity was still basically the same as SAF had left it, our plan was to try and sustain what we had always done - fast counter attacks, wing play etc.
Yeah, I read something similar. It often lead to a drop of form in January and February but once the CL knockout rounds started Barca became stronger and stronger. It's what I aimed at by questioning the periodization in his training at Bayern. He's clearly doing something wrong in that regard.
As anyone mentioned Ryan Giggs.
I'm not dismissive, but Mourinho also won the Champs League with both Porto (who at the time were by no means favs) and Inter. He is undeniably a great coach, but winning the league with Barcelona / Bayern with the players he has at his disposal makes it harder to judge him as a manager.
If he went to Inter, Juventus and ended up winning the champs league, then there is more evidence to judge him.
Untrue, in recent years there is 3 teams fighting for the league, sometimes 4 and 2 will always drop away. Hell, under 'Arry at one point Spurs were on a charge.
This year has been an odd one, as most of the main teams have fecked it up but at the start of next season, it will be difficult to pick a winner between Utd, City, Arsenal and Chelsea (and I'm sure the odds will reflect this) - lets go to the German league, Bayern and...
Aside from last year when we weren't even in the race there had not been three teams competing until April since 2011 (very arguable that anyone other than Chelsea put up any real challenge anyway, we still ran away with it mid-April and finished 9 points ahead of second place). 2012 was just us and City, 2013 it was only us, 2010 it was a two-horse race as was 2009.
It's not a title race if you fall away in February.
Pep is a type of manager of which the only other is mourinho. He looks like he's only going to do short term gigs at clubs that will never go more than a few seasons without winning the league anyway. And it looks like he's going to choose clubs where there's already a good nucleus in place for him to work with.
That doesn't make him less of a manager, but it makes him hard to compare with any other manager than Mou. Most other managers spend much more time at a single club and thus have to go through the cycle of breaking up a team and the rebuilding it.
Well if we are being critical of their competition as well i can do the same for Mourinho. Let me try.
Porto had probably most unimpressive CL win in history. They beat us by getting Roy Keane sent off with some oscar worthy playacting. After that they beat Lyon, Deportivo and Monaco, all teams with inferior financial resources to lift the cup. They barely got past a Deportivo team that couldn't even get out of their group next season. This wasn't a campaign of giant killings, all the big teams dropped out sooner than expected. It was a strange strange season. Atletico getting to the final last season beating Chelsea and Barcelona was way more impressive. Inter had no competition in Serie A and their team was full of world class players. See?
At the end of the day what i see is two managers who have both had tons of cash to back them up and have done a pretty good job. But anyone can discredit their achievements if you really really wanted to.
Spot on. The champions league that year was really wank in terms of quality. Like you say, one can pick holes in all these top managers' careers if you want to. But there's no denying they are all too class.
Rumours are that, because of Pep, the entire Bayern medical staff resigned today. Bayern is on fire after their loss yesterday. Supposedly Pep blamed the staff for the loss and numerous injuries this season.
Where did you hear that ? Sounds completely made up.
It's not though, it's true
.Wow that's pretty serious then.It's not though, it's true
Will be interesting if Porto can hold on in Germany next week.
If Pep thought he had it tough with Bayern's injuries he would have died ten times already if he coached us in recent years. 
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