How Pep Guardiola told his Bayern Munich players a story about water polo to inspire them to Super Cup victory against Chelsea Eating the meal provided in the players’ lounge is compulsory. When only four players did so after a Bundesliga game against Nuremberg in August 2013, Guardiola spat at his squad: “I won’t ask again. You must eat within an hour of the match and since you’re all professionals playing at the highest level I trust that you will do it from now on.” Through these training pitch moments, as well as dozens of vignettes of Pep in his office, in the restaurant lounge, or at home, Perarnau composes a portrait of an utterly football tactics mad coach, obsessional in his pursuit of the right tactical dynamics for each match. Pep is the classic first in / last out of the training center type, working long hours alone or with his assistants incessantly searching for tactical ways to disable his opponents. Estiarte jokes about the “law of 32 minutes” when it comes to Pep: “‘You invite him for a meal in a restaurant, hoping that he’ll forget about football, but 32 minutes later you can see his mind is already wandering.” Pep is so deeply emerged in his craft that Estiarte speaks about saving the man from himself. And yet somehow, in a way I still find utterly bizarre, Marti Perarnau’s most astonishing feat as author of this biography of Pep Guardiola is to actually leave the more astute reader with a significantly lesser opinion of the man commonly thought of as “the best manager in world football”. To completely misquote Winston Churchill in a completely unrelated context, never have so many words been given to so few actual achievements in Guardiola’s first season as Bayern Munich manager (the sole period this biography chronicles). The defeat at Spurs was perhaps the perfect microcosm of City’s current state. They played some very nice football, dominated for extended periods, and carved out chance after chance.

And finally, 'people.' The quality of the ideas and the complexity of the language are of no consequence if your players are reluctant students. Essential though it may be, it is not merely sheer talent that matters here. The player must also be completely open to learning the secrets of the language, to practise them and make improvements where necessary. They must have complete faith in this process. During the 2013-14 season Bayern Munich had 279 training sessions over 326 days, while also playing 56 official matches and 14 friendlies. The team won four of six trophies entered, but the season was not seen as a success. All this was witnessed by author Marti Perarnau while writing this book. It begins as a typical enough season diary. Perarnau is a former Olympic high-jumper and now friend of Guardiola’s, allowed daily access to Bayern’s private training sessions. The inside story includes lots of previously unpublicised detail on the tactical exercises, choreographed group moves and regular video sessions Pep uses to introduce his “game philosophy” to his new team. The obsession that Guardiola and his players have had about their rivals has been clear for all to see, and frankly, it has never seemed very healthy.In his 2001 autobiography he wrote: “[His former Barça boss Johan] Cruyff used to tell me that if I was fouled, it was my own fault because I’d held onto [the ball] too long; I had to let it go much before.” Es muy fácil hacer juicios desde una silla, comiendo papitas. Cuando vemos el trasfondo de la primera temporada de Pep al frente de un equipo que venía de ganarlo todo (Triplete), te das cuenta de que en ocasiones, no ganar campeonatos no es sinónimo de fracaso. Prueba de ello, el haber ganado 4 campeonatos en su primera temporada con el Bayern teniendo a medio equipo lesionado más de media temporada. There is a routine to his in-game life, too, all hand signals and shouts of encouragement; meanwhile up in the stands, head of analysis Carles Planchart will send images of specific moves down to Torrent’s iPad on the bench. Half-time is the one and only occassion that Guardiola enters the dressing room before or during the game. It sat even worse when The Reds took the European crown that still eludes City, before pushing them off the summit domestically this season. That certainly wasn’t meant to happen.

Don’t ever confuse Pep Guardiola for a style-over-substance aesthete. Unsurprisingly for someone who has hoarded 21 trophies in eight seasons as a top-flight coach, he wants to win. Born from meticulous analysis building up to a game – Guardiola watches the opposition’s previous six matches, plus targeted highlights provided by head of analysis Carles Planchart – he’ll get a ‘Eureka moment’ that crystallises how his team will win. “It’s the moment that my job becomes truly meaningful,” he has said.All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form, or by any Their opponents were not the only ones who expected City to continue to preside over English football after their 100-point haul in 2017-18. They expected it too, and that someone dared to not only come at them, but push them as far as Liverpool last season, did not sit well.