Pep Guardiola is one of the best managers in the history of the sport of soccer, and few are alike to him. Along with his revolutionary tactics, he has excellent man-management skills and other managerial traits. He also has a keen eye for great, talented players, consistently bringing in good players at Manchester City.
Manchester City also has a good transfer project with Guardiola, buying many players from many clubs and leagues around the world. But Guardiola has a restriction on buying players from two specific clubs.
Guardiola’s different policy for Barcelona and Bayern stars
Manchester City’s director of football, Txiki Begiristain, is the main man behind all transfers and has often been praised by Pep Guardiola himself. While Txiki seems to be the one behind all these great transfers, even he is restricted by one transfer policy. That transfer policy has been revealed thanks to a new book on Pep Guardiola, written by journalist Marti Perarna. It is titled ‘God save Pep’, and will be available this January.
The one restriction that Guardiola places on transfers is that no players from Barcelona and Bayern Munich, two of his previous managerial clubs, will be signed under him. This shows the loyalty Guardiola has to his former employers. Examples of his refusal include the apparent snubbing of Lionel Messi in 2020. At the time, the Argentine wanted to leave the Catalans and got in touch with Guardiola to join City instead.
The author said on AS regarding this, “It was Lionel Messi who offered himself to Manchester City in 2020. The one who knocked on the door was Leo. He is very clear not to touch Barça and not to touch Bayern.”
Guardiola also told Txiki not to sign any Bayern players as well, “City had a list of Bayern players to sign, and Pep told Txiki Begiristain not to touch anyone. And there was a lot of them, almost all of them except for the goalkeeper.”
There have been some exceptions, such as the signing of Thiago Alcantara at Bayern from Barcelona, and Claudio Bravo at City from Barcelona as well. The Spaniard is also quite happy to let players leave to these clubs, such as Ferran Torres and Eric Garcia to Barcelona.
What trophies did Pep Guardiola win at Bayern Munich?
Pep Guardiola managed Bayern Munich, taking the reins over in 2013. It was his second managerial role, after a successful period with Barcelona. Despite many doubts on whether he could cope up with the German style of playing, he blew all of those in his first campaign itself.
He won the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup in his first months itself, and it would only be the start. Bayern would go on to dominate the Bundesliga, winning it seven games left, the earliest a team won the German league.
His Bayern team would continue dominating, winning the Bundesliga two more times, making it three in a row. He would also win the DFB Pokal trophy twice. The only trophies he missed were the German Super Cup, and the Champions League. He lost the former as runners up, while consistently crashing out of the UCL in the semi finals.
Above all, Guardiola created a very strong Bayern team that dominated very much. If not for his lack of Champions League success, he would be more remembered there. Pep Guardiola would finally leave the Bavarians in 2016 after three successful years, and would join Manchester City, where he is also dominating.
