When Pep Guardiola won his first Premier League game in August, 2016 - a 2-1 win over Sunderland, thanks to a late Paddy McNair own goal - there were two hopes of him staying at Manchester City for almost six years: slim and none.
It would be three years, tops. Too intense, Pep. That is why he had a sabbatical after leaving Barcelona. Yet here he is in 2022, beer and cigars to hand, celebrating a fourth Premier League success in half a dozen points-drenched, goal-heavy seasons.
It is not just this particular title - won in the most thrilling fashion - we should be saluting; it is the consistent brilliance of the City team he has developed and redeveloped, and his slavish devotion to a philosophy about how the game should be played. Very few managers have been given the sort of resources Guardiola has enjoyed. Make no mistake, that makes it a hell of a lot of easier to put your principles into action.
When you can have players of the calibre of Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling to bring on and make a difference, that makes it a hell of a lot easier to put your principles into action. When £100million Jack Grealish cannot get on to the pitch and when you can sign a player of Erling Haaland’s brilliance, that makes it a hell of a lot easier to put your principles into action.
But there is only so much style money can buy and the rest comes from a manager’s ethos. And Guardiola’s is pass, pass, pass, attack, attack, attack. In fact, the signing of Haaland is like some sort of practical joke on the rest of the Premier League.
Like City need to get their scoring act in order. Yeah, right. If Guardiola has one minor disappointment after this latest title success, it would probably be that his team fell one short of another century of Premier League goals.
Have Your Say! Can Haaland lead City to Champions League glory? Join the debate here.
On two previous occasions, they have managed to get the ton up and in the other campaigns under Guardiola, they scored 80, 83 and 96. This idea City need some sort of conventional striker might have gathered pace over this past season or two but Guardiola has a team full of unconventional strikers.
That is why they score for fun. They score from anywhere with anyone, hence Gundogan and Rodri being the on-target heroes on Sunday. But Guardiola will, no doubt, enjoy working with Haaland and that should give City fans encouragement over the longer-term future of their manager.
To win this fourth Premier League title already means that Guardiola's tenure in Manchester can be classed as some type of mini-dynasty. But perhaps he loves watching his team as much as all football purists do. Perhaps, he will go on and on. Six more years, anyone?
