If you believe what you read in the papers, both Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola could soon find themselves in Premier League dugouts.
Sunday’s papers stated that a deal to take Guardiola to Man City in the summer was 100% done, while Jose Mourinho has never hidden the fact that he would love to return to the England one day. With Chelsea in need of a new permanent manager and Mourinho’s Real stuttering this season, he may well find himself back at his former club some time soon.
It’s pretty exciting to think that two of best managers in world football could soon both be a weekly fixture here in the English game, but I don’t know if City and Chelsea the best places they could go.
I’ve also been wondering, tell me if I’m being ignorant, but is Guardiola as good a manager as people think? Yes he won a lot of trophies during his time at Barca, but in that two to three year period you could have sat a chimp in the dugout and they would have been just as successful. He was blessed with a squad, littered with superstars, that most managers will never ever get the chance to work with, in what was just his first managerial job.
It remains to be seen whether or not he could take a team and make them play in a style that suits the players at his disposal. A lot has been said about Guardiola’s philosphy or tiki-taka football and how he got his Barca team playing in that short-sharp possession style.
So if you look at all the teams in our league, Arsenal would be the obvious choice for Guardiola as they try to play in the style he’s so closely associated with. It could well be time for a change at the Emirates too. Arsene Wenger seems to be getting more and more reluctant to change his approach and to admit he’s wrong. Signings like Chamakh and Gervinho wouldn’t have been brought to Accrington let alone Arsenal.
He continues to persevere with the passing style of play when in actual fact, I don’t think Arsenal have enough of the right kind of player to do it any more. During their best season of recent times in 07 or 08, they had Fabregas, Nasri, Rosicky, Hleb and a few others who could all play the short game. Now I can’t really see anyone other than Jack Wilshere (who will be wasted as a player if he stays at Arsenal all his career).
Despite it’s association with Pep, the origins of what is now known as tiki-taka was actually implemented at Camp Nou by Johan Cruyff during his spell in charge of the club between 1988 and 1996. Could it just be pure coincidence that as Guardiola took charge, he was able to use midfielders like Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Messi; all world class players who have been schooled in that style of play from an early age at the club academy.
So I’d be interested to see whether that style of play is actually Guardiola’s style of play, or whether it is simply the style of play that suited the team he had at his disposal. He seems like a clever guy so I’m sure he’d be smart enough to know that you can’t play the same way at every club and still be successful.
José Mourinho is much more experienced than Pep, and has enjoyed success to differing levels wherever he’s been to date. From my own personal perspective they have completely different styles. I see Guardiola as more of a tactician, a student of the game, and Mourinho as more of a leader of men, whose strength seems to be that he gets players wanting to win for him.
He’s often been linked with the job at Old Trafford, when the day finally comes for Alex Ferguson to retire. As I understand it Ferguson is friendly with both of them, and would recommend both as a possible successor.
Personally I would prefer to see Mourinho in the hot seat at United. I just think that if Guardiola does like to stick to his tiki-taka, it might be a bit single-minded for United. Depending on who we have at the club in any one season our style of play changes to fit, whereas you don’t often see Barca with a plan B. For example we won the league two years ago playing some of the worst football I’ve seen in years. I think that would bother Guardiola more than Mourinho.
At the end of the day though I don’t see either of these men as the kind of people who would be looking for a long term project. Guardiola was at Barca for just four seasons before needing a sabatical, and Mourinho’s longest position so far has been three and a half seasons at Chelsea. Maybe it’s a job for David Moyes. He isn’t as glamorous, but I think it’s time he gets his chance at a bigger club.
Edit: Unfortunately for me, this article was written the day before Pep announced he was joining Bayern Munich this summer. Felt like a good topic to write about at the time, now I look like a berk.