Page 57 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

all of that and Txiki had to let Luis Enrique know the decision had been reversed.
So in many ways, life had now gone full circle for Pep. The boy from Santpedor who had been
lucky enough to get a phone call from La Masía some twenty years earlier was now coming back to
where it had all begun. In putting some distance between himself and the club in the interim, he had

more to give than if he had stayed.
On 21 June 2007, seven months after retiring as a footballer, Pep Guardiola was unveiled as the
new coach of Barcelona B.

Camp Nou. Press conference room, afternoon of 21 June 2007

‘I hadn’t had any other offers, nobody had phoned me. For this reason I am so grateful to the club,
because for me it is a privilege to be able to train Barça B.’ That is what Pep told the media that had
assembled for his presentation at the Camp Nou on that summer day in 2007. The season that was
about to start turned out to be more than just a privilege; it evolved into a campaign that would define
his abilities as a football coach.

At that press conference, Joan Laporta, who at that stage was beginning to resemble what the
Americans refer to as a ‘lame duck president’, had salvaged a degree of credibility with the
appointment of a former player, symbol of the club and nation. At that moment in time, seated beside
Guardiola, Laporta needed the benefit of Pep’s halo effect. The president’s tenure had previously
been a success, making Barcelona a force in Europe again with two league titles and a Champions

League trophy delivered in swashbuckling style; but as time went on, the president’s image had been
tarnished by internal divisions at the club and accusations from a number of former members of the
Laporta board – including Sandro Rosell, who had resigned – accusing him of becoming authoritarian
and, some suggested, out of touch with reality. And of course, a trophyless 2006–7 season didn’t help.
Power is a strange thing and Laporta was the perfect example of the way it can transform even the
most idealistic individual.
‘All my life I wanted to be Guardiola,’ said Laporta that afternoon, basking in the reflected glory of

an idol to a generation of Barcelona fans. Cruyff was nowhere to be seen, despite the fact that he
approved Guardiola’s appointment, preferring to remain pulling the strings behind the Laporta era,
just as he had always done.
The level of risk that was being taken by the club with regard to Guardiola was on a par with his
notoriety – but he wasn’t scared of a fall. His speech during his presentation to the media came like a
cascade of words that he himself had repeated many times in bed, when in the pool in Doha or

walking around the beaches of Pescara, daydreaming. ‘I am no one as a coach, that’s why I face this
opportunity with such uncontrollable enthusiasm. I’ve come here prepared to help in any way
necessary. I know the club and I hope to help these players and the idea of football that you all have
to grow. In fact, the best way of educating the players is to make them see that they can win. I hope the
sense of privilege I feel is felt by everyone in the team,’ he told a full media room.
Guardiola likes to repeat that his real vocation is teaching: he dreams that, once he gives up the
professional game, he’ll be able to train kids, youngsters who ‘still listen and want to learn’. It was to

an audience of attentive youngsters eager to learn that he gave his first speech as a coach a few days
after his presentation. He recalls that he chose a selection of ideas that represented, as well as any
others, his footballing philosophy.
He could live with them playing badly now and again, he told them, but he demanded 100 per cent