Ex-Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has paid tribute to Pep Guardiola after Manchester City sealed a famous treble at the weekend.
Many have pointed to the £1.2 Billion that the Citizens have spent on transfers since Sheikh Mansour’s arrival 15 years ago, but Wenger believes their recent success is very much down to who is in the dugout:
“I don’t think about it like that [in terms of the money]. Guardiola is a top class coach and has survived at that level because he has the quality. Top-class players without a top-class coach will not do well – you need both of them.”
It’s a very fair point that Wenger makes. At the end of the day, a football match is played between two teams of eleven players, and the manager’s influence is integral to results.
Guardiola goes down in the history books
The Spaniard is now the first manager to win trebles in two different leagues, having also won La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League with Barcelona all the way back in 2009.
Eight other managers, including Celtic’s Jock Stein (1966/67), Ajax’s Stefan Kovacs (1971/72), PSV’s Guus Hiddink (1987/88), Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson (1998/99), Inter Milan’s Jose Mourinho (2009/10), Bayern Munich pair Jupp Heynckes and Hansi Flick (2012/13 and 2019/20), as well as Barca’s Luis Enrique (2014/15), have achieved one treble.
However, Guardiola is now in a league of his own, and who is to say he can’t repeat the feat in upcoming campaigns?
A weight has been lifted on City
After numerous failures to lift the European Cup in recent years, the triumph at the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul will be more of a relief than anything else for the club’s owners, players and supporters.
There has been a huge amount of pressure on the team to finally seal their first Champions League crown and, now that it is done, there will be a certain amount of expectation that City can repeat the trick in future seasons.
