Pep Guardiola has built a handsome trophy haul during his tenure at Manchester City - something that has gloriously coincided with troubled times on the other side of town.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer finds himself under huge scrutiny at a time when Pep again appears to be breaching new ground with the Premier League champions.
It’s rather amusing looking back at Guardiola's first season where he didn’t win a trophy and many considered him as "overrated" or thought he "couldn’t hack the English game".
Unlike the fine wines the City boss loves to collect, those viewpoints did not age well. The days of "Fraudiola" are long gone.
However, all things must come to an end. Unfortunately, Guardiola will not be at the club forever and the utter mess unfolding at Old Trafford makes the mind wander as to what life may be like after City’s most decorated manager steps down.
In MEN’s latest Facebook Live, City is Ours presenter Ross Jackson and editor Dom Farrell discussed all things City, including what life after Pep might look like.
DF: “I think this succession of managers [at City] will be tidy and cleaner [than at United] because, barring anything completely untoward, Guardiola decides when he goes. It’s all on him. He has a contract until 2023 and if he wants to extend the club will be delighted for him to do so. If he wants to leave the club will put plans in place.
“United talk about ‘the United Way’ and the spirit of this club and this idea they might get another Sir Alex Ferguson. Now, we look at Ferguson’s alumni in coaching, there’s not a lot of great success stories. Maybe Steve Bruce’s longevity is the best out of all of them.
“Whereas Guardiola is from the Cruyff school. Obviously, nobody would say Johan Cruyff was a better manager [than Ferguson] in terms of what they’ve won but, with Cruyff, there’s a model to how his teams played.
“Guardiola is the best, he is a rare managerial talent, but people like Luis Enrique, Ronald Koeman, Frank de Boer, and Ernesto Valverde have all won leagues. This is a plan you can take and implement and City very much play in that style, so if the successor was Erik ten Hag or Luis Enrique, I think that could really work.
“Having said all that, I’d be amazed if there wasn’t a big drop-off at City when Pep goes because he'll have been at the club for seven or eight years by the time he goes. In the modern era that’s like a Ferguson or Wenger-type tenure,
"When a manager becomes so integral to the club, we’ve seen there's no easy way of doing it when that manager goes. Liverpool will be the same when Klopp goes.
“You look at Barcelona now and the shambles they’re in, there’s no guarantee if you have a style, things will work. I think everything is in place for good succession but it’s going to be a bit messy because these things always are.
“United are showing that in an extreme sense at the moment.”
Who do you think would be a good candidate after Pep moves on? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
