Page 145 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

Tito’s trust in Piqué was reflected in the choice of centre back for the second game of Pep’s first
season, when injury kept Rafa Márquez out of the team and the former United defender was selected
for the 1-1 draw v Racing de Santander at the Camp Nou that left Barcelona with one point out of a
possible six. The day after the game, Pep pulled the player to one side in training and told him, ‘Think

about their goal, the one where the shot rebounded, you should have pushed up and played them
offside; make sure you’re ready for the game in Lisbon.’ And Piqué thought to himself, ‘Shit, wow,
this guy really believes in me.’ Right from the start, their relationship became special because of that
immense trust.
Piqué had really been signed as the fourth centre back (Márquez, Puyol and Cáceres were in front
of him, Milito spent the whole season injured) and after getting the nod against Racing came the first
Champions League game of the season against Sporting Lisbon. Puyol was moved to left back and

Márquez and the new guy were the centre backs. ‘Damn, he must have some faith in me!’ Piqué kept
scratching his head. That confidence boost carried him through to April, when he got selected to
partner Márquez in the centre of defence against Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final at the
Camp Nou. Márquez ruptured a knee ligament in that game and Puyol came off the bench – and that
was it. Puyol and Piqué formed a central defensive pairing that became first choice for years to come
and went unbeaten for more than fifty games.

‘My relationship with Pep is not like the friendship I have with my mates because you cannot have
that between player and coach, but it is close,’ Piqué remembers. ‘We’ve only ever met once for a
coffee away from training to discuss football matters. A few years ago he asked me to join him after
training to chat about the team and my role in it. We met at a hotel close to the training ground and
talked for an hour or so, and Pep told me, “come on, you can give us a bit more”. He’s done the same
thing with a few players; he did it with Henry once.’
Piqué’s insight is a clue as to how their relationship developed since that Racing game. Guardiola

has not publicly complimented many players the way he has Piqué; but neither has he challenged them
to the same extent either, on a daily basis, from day one. After seeing what he was capable of in his
first season, Pep was insistent that Piqué did not waste his talent and sometimes you could sense
tension in their relationship. Gerard is Pep’s weakness, but he knew that the player always had more
to give.
In his last season, Guardiola didn’t feel Piqué was in the right frame of mind and that was a source

of frustration for him. The player didn’t understand why, partly because of injury and partly as a
technical decision, he missed six consecutive games at one point, including a Clásico, but the
manager knew it was done not only for the good of the group, but for Gerard, too. The centre back had
lost those feelings a player needs to have to be a regular in the Barcelona line-up, that sense of being
at peace with himself and the team when he entered the dressing room. He had taken too much for
granted; he was distracted.
‘When someone isn’t giving their all, then I think that maybe something is wrong in their personal

life or they have some sort of problem,’ Guardiola explains. ‘So, that’s when I have to step in. When
someone isn’t giving everything to the team it isn’t because they are bad or cheeky. If that were the
case, either the player goes or I do. I get paid to manage this player, to recover them.’ If they are
worthwhile recovering, one might add.
Pep did everything he could to get Piqué back on track and repeatedly told him he was not making
the right choices. Yet it was only at the end of Pep’s final season that the player truly understood what

he had been talking about. His performance in the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine
was the confirmation the lesson had been well learnt.