A message from Pep Guardiola’s daughter, Maria. 👇
“papi ♥️ We blinked and it’s been 10 years. 10 seasons. Hundreds of away games, trips to Wembley, too many Bernabeu nights, and millions of memories.
“Football was never just a sport. It decided where we lived, how often we moved, the languages we learned, the friends we made and the emotions we felt. From as long as I can remember it was football stadiums. Moving to Doha, Mexico, Rome, Brescia, Barcelona, New York, Munich and Manchester. Thank you for giving us a childhood built around sport, something so rare and special.
“We moved again, for the 8th time in 14 years. Manchester is very hard to put into words. You changed the most respected league in the world. You achieved things and broke records that may never be repeated. And we got to experience all of it from the closest seat possible.
“The happiest and saddest tears came from football, because watching you live every second so intensely made us feel everything with you. Those 90 minutes where the world feels like it stops.
“We think people forget quickly because football moves fast and a new season always starts. But as time passes, we’ll realise just how impossible those numbers really are. 41 trophies in 16 years.
“Years from now people will talk about football and try to explain what this era felt like, they’ll talk about your teams, the way they made people feel. Because beyond the trophies, you gave us memories we escaped real life for.
“It has been a privilege to watch and support you for almost 25 years. Thank you for always bringing us close to everything, for including us in it all. The biggest privilege has been to live it all beside you.
“As citizens, football fans and rivals we will miss seeing you on our screens every week. Because without realising it there is a final match, a final whistle. And none of us are ever really ready for that moment.
“Thank you papi and mami, the beautiful things in our lives always trace back to this game.
“For the world these were historic football moments, for us they were family memories, and I don’t think any of us realised while living it, that we were inside football history. And that stays long after the final whistle ♥️”
See the full post and photos 👉 https://t.co/cIxfb9aRAQ
Pep Guardiola’s legacy? Look all around from park pitches to Wembley. So many teams and coaches have been influenced by Guardiola. More teams playing out from the back, full-backs inverting into midfield, inviting the press, passing through it, attacking the space. Teams evolving. City won the league in 2021 with false 9s. Then a real 9 arrived, Erling Haaland, as Guardiola tweaked and twisted again. Mixing it up, possession, possession, then going long to Haaland if needed. Mixing it up, possession in the centre, then releasing flying wingers Jeremy Doku and Antoine Semenyo.
Guardiola’s legacy? Look at the coaches who learned from him. Enzo Maresca, his likely successor. And Mikel Arteta, Xabi Alonso, Vincent Kompany, Xavi and Luis Enrique. Look at his impact on England. Nico O’Reilly starts at left-back. Phil Foden developed early by Guardiola, not sent out on loan, embedded in the first team early.
He improved John Stones, Rico Lewis and Kyle Walker (who is now retired from England). Guardiola gave James Trafford a run in the cups. He gave Cole Palmer a chance before he craved more starts and went to Chelsea. Others have also moved on after a spell under Guardiola’s enlightened tutelage: Morgan Rogers, Liam Delap, James McAtee, Taylor Harwood-Bellis.
Guardiola has undeniably enjoyed huge resources to call upon during his decade at City. He was able to draft in Marc Guehi and Semenyo in January. The sport still awaits the verdict of the 115 charges of rule breaches, charges which City deny vigorously. But Guardiola's achievements deserve celebrating: 591 games, 416 wins, 20 trophies.
And so to the future. If it is confirmed that Guardiola is leaving after Sunday’s final game of the season, at home to Aston Villa, he will be greatly missed. Maresca is his mooted successor. He knows the club, knows the way Guardiola worked, and can seek to continue that work. It’s a relatively young squad that Guardiola has built. It’s a continuity job. Surely, though, Kompany would have been the man they really wanted. Club legend. But currently embedded at Bayern Munich.
Guardiola's legacy is encouraging innovation, total commitment, near obsession with his work and playing attacking football. This City side are entertainers, playing 4-2-4 at times in the FA Cup final on Saturday. Even if the league is beyond him, the title seized by a coach he helped develop, Guardiola leaves as a winner, with two more trophies this season - and countless memories. Good luck to Guardiola in whatever he does next. #MCFC
Some guy in the little Tesco singing “posh spice is a slapper she gobbles like a turkey, and when she’s shagging beckham she thinks of Rayan Cherki” 😭
It’s going to be a cracking day isn’t it blues 😂��😂