Page 113 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

However, their pre-match routine was not going to be the same as any other in Rome.
On 27 May 2009, with two hours to go before kick-off, the teams arrived at the stadium.

Typically, Pep prefers to leave his charges alone for most of that time and deliberately tries
to avoid going into the players’ dressing room up until the right moment, when he allows
himself around five, ten minutes to intervene. But that night he had a surprise up his sleeve
for the players.

Guardiola has an abundance of emotional intelligence, and needs, wants, to get in synch
with his players. He can communicate with them in different ways, reach them with a word,
a gesture, a look, a hug – it is easier to place instructions and demands in an open heart,
and even to enjoy the profession if the relationships are based on trust and – yes, why not?

– love.
Throughout the season, his speeches had engaged with the players emotionally before
games but on this occasion he had prepared something different, something that would not
require any additional words.

Pep Guardiola: What I have learnt over the years – I am aware tactics are very
important, but the really great coaches are coaches of people and that human quality is
what makes them better than the rest. Choosing the right people to look up to and give
them the authority in a changing room is one of the many selections a coach has to make.

Sir Alex Ferguson: Well, in my experience, human beings want to do things the easiest
possible way in life. I know some people who have retired at fifty years of age, don’t ask
me why. So the drive that certain human beings have got is different from the Scholes and
the Giggs and the Xavis, you know, and Messi. I look at Messi and I say to myself, nothing

is going to stop him being one of the greats. When he gets to thirty-four, thirty-five, most
defenders are going to say ‘Thank fuck he’s gone’. You know what I mean? Because he
looks to me an exceptional human being. And Xavi, too, in the same way I would describe
Scholes and Giggs. In other words, that motivation is not an actual issue for them; their

pride comes before everything else. You know, you see the way Giggs and Scholes train,
how they go about their life and that is a fantastic example to other people in the dressing
room. I think I have a few who will follow on from that and I’ll be surprised if people in the
dressing room at Barcelona do not take how Puyol acts, for instance, as sort of a personal

motivation.
Perhaps Barcelona, as Sir Alex is suggesting, didn’t need more motivation than winning,
than doing the best for their manager, than making sure they didn’t disappoint Puyol or Xavi.
But Pep felt that the occasion called for something out of the ordinary to help set the tone.

His plan got under way a couple of weeks before the final with a text message to Santi
Padró, a TV producer for the Catalan channel TV3: ‘Hola, Santi. We have to meet. You
have to help me win the Champions League.’
When Santi came up with the goods a few days later, Pep watched the end result on his

laptop and the film the producer had put together brought a tear to his eye. Santi knew
straight away that he’d achieved exactly what Pep had asked him to do. Pep then called for
Estiarte to come running, telling him he had to watch this DVD. His friend’s reaction was
equally resounding: ‘Where and when will you show it to them?’

‘Just before the game,’ replied Pep.