Pep Guardiola is the best manager in Premier League history and an impossible act to follow

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Pep Guardiola has been the most influential manager of the modern era. And undoubtedly the best. Guardiola has not just won trophies - he has redefined the game, changed how we watch it and changed how we play it.

The Manchester City manager is a pioneer. A legend who, in my opinion, stands above Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger. They are the great managers of the Premier League era - and Guardiola has matched them all and more.

Why? Because Guardiola has not only won - 20 trophies in his remarkable 10 years - but has done it with such style.

For those with shorter memories, his first year at City did not go to plan. They did not play how he wanted, he had a nightmare with his keepers - Claudio Bravo could kick but not catch - and he finished third, having just scraped into the Champions League places.

But this is what Pep is all about; he refused to buckle and change his principles. He refused to ditch his style and carried on.

I remember going to Goodison Park on January 15, 2017, and City were absolutely thumped 4-0 by Everton in a game which will probably go down as Guardiola’s lowest point.

Guardiola looked shell-shocked afterwards. Romelu Lukaku, Kevin Mirallas, Tom Davies and Ademola Lookman scored. City looked clueless.

I came away thinking: Guardiola will never work in the Premier League. How wrong was I? This is the ultimate perfectionist; my way or the highway.

There is a great story from the dressing room from that first season. At Crystal Palace, November 19, 2016, City escaped with a 2-1 win on a difficult day at Selhurst Park. Connor Wickham scored for Palace and Yaya Toure scored twice for City.

The players were expecting congratulations when they came back into the dressing room. Not pretty. But they won. It was tough.

Instead, Guardiola went mad and told them all he would rather lose playing his style and football than win like that. Playing ugly. It could never happen again, he said.

It still took time but the players really understood then. This is the manager who sets standards - and sticks by them.

As a manager, he was defined by Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff. He challenged and teased the Barcelona hierarchy to give the rookie coach the job (he was coaching the B team but his potential was obvious) - and built one of the greatest teams in European football. The rest is history.

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Lionel Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Co conquered and won the lot with incredible style. Arguably the best team of the Champions League era. His team at Bayern Munich was even more pretty - but could not deliver the ultimate prize of the European Cup.

That dogged him at City. He even blew it by overthinking it in the “Covid final” in 2021 against Chelsea when he played without a holding midfielder - and lost.

But Guardiola got there eventually with a historic Treble, four Premier League titles in a row and so many more slices of history.

He is intense, determined and single-minded. A born winner. Players talk about their “heads spinning” with so many instructions, details and stepping into different positions.

They talk about his warmth publicly but that is more likely a desire to please the managerial genius in front of them. One player who has been through it all, is one of their longest-serving stars privately revealed he has had two “proper conversations” with Guardiola in the best part of a decade. Guardiola did not want to be loved. He just wants to win.

Guardiola took playing out from the back to a whole new level. The risk and reward. It was brilliant to watch. The inverted full back - a defender stepping into midfield - seemed to give City an extra man. That was the beauty of his tactics.

In peak Joao Cancelo - he was arguably the best - they just seemed to have 12 players on the pitch. It just was not fair. At the Club World Cup last summer, he was different. This was a new team. One in transition and still building. He was more relaxed and enjoying it.

He even allowed himself a laugh when he saw a few familiar faces in the press. Coming up, asking after us, a joke, a smile and he enjoyed engaging.

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That has carried through into this season. Jokes at press conferences. Even doing the West Ham gesture - Come On You Irons - ahead of their game with title rivals Arsenal. You would have to be blind not to see it. Even after the FA Cup final on Saturday, he made for his security man on the pitch, hugged him, thanked him. He was saying goodbye.

Guardiola has been demob happy because he knew he was going. It is so obvious it has been coming. They have sounded out Enzo Maresca because he is a coach, has great ideas and was at City. But he can never be Pep - and nor should he try to be.

Guardiola is an impossible act to follow. The whisper has been going round for so long that potential new signings back in January even enquired whether Guardiola was staying or not. Well, you would ask, wouldn’t you?

The answer came back with there can be no guarantees. But City would appoint well and if someone new comes in then they will be a top drawer coach.

Sadly, no-one will ever be Pep.