Page 128 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

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PEP AND HIS PLAYERS

The former player becomes a manager

As the leader of a group of professional footballers, Pep Guardiola had to reconcile two natural

impulses: on the one hand he had to learn to restrain his instinct to act and celebrate as a player; on
the other, he had to learn, as a recently retired footballer, to make the biggest number of right
decisions – become a manager, basically, learn the trade. Those were the challenges. On many
occasions he felt jealous of his players cocooned in a little world centred on the needs of one person,
and he realised very early on that his job consisted of looking after these small bubbles of isolation,

caressing the egos of his pupils and constantly directing their intentions and efforts to the benefit of
the group.
Announcing his retirement on the radio didn’t completely shut down the part of him that was still a
footballer. Guardiola had only hung up his boots seven months before Barcelona contracted him to be
the coach of the B team, but when he walked into the Mini Estadi to face the Barcelona youngsters he
knew a part of him had to be put firmly in the past: he was not going to work as a former player but as
a new coach. And he had to construct a barrier that separated both worlds.
After the fulfilling experience in the B team, the first team was another kettle of fish. One player

experienced Guardiola’s transition from player to manager up close: his move from a small world to
a complex network of worlds. Xavi Hernández had been his teammate in the late nineties and he
easily envisaged Pep’s transition into his new role, but was very aware that an ability to read a match
is just one of the assets a manager requires. Xavi and Pep conversed at length during the Rijkaard
regime about the team’s shortfalls and the difficulties of dealing with players who had forgotten how

to behave professionally. The midfielder also told him he would make a great manager – in fact, he
wanted Pep and his values and his ideas returned to the Barcelona team.
After those talks Xavi was convinced that a dose of Guardiola’s medicine was what the group
needed. And Pep himself knew that it wasn’t Xavi (or Iniesta, or Valdés, or Puyol) whom he had to
convince from the moment he entered the dressing room, but those who didn’t know too much about
him. He was convinced that he could.
In order to win them over, Pep had to act without looking as if he was learning on the job: he had

clear ideas of what to do and trusted his instinct and his experience as a player would help him along
the way, but there were going to be unexpected turns and new lessons to be learnt. In the dressing
room, though, where the player is testing the manager continuously, it was essential that he looked, at
all times, as if he knew exactly what he was doing right from day one.
The decision to get rid of Ronaldinho and Deco won Pep instant authority, but it was in the day to
day where he could really leave his mark. And for that, the first meeting, the first chat, was crucial.