Page 86 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

Catalonia that his was the way to play.
‘Football is played for people,’ Cruyff often said. And more: ‘I want my team to play well even if
it is because I have to watch all the games and I don’t want to get bored.’
Johan needed to be arrogant to win over the sceptics so he developed a love-hate relationship with

his pupils, the board and the media. Not everybody accepted what he was proposing and there was
even opposition to his ideas within factions of his early squads. A young Pep didn’t comprehend
every decision taken but wanted to understand the thinking process behind it, and soon, once
convinced, became an evangelical follower of Cruyff.
For the Dutch coach there were three principles that were non-negotiable: firstly, on the pitch
events were not casual occurrences, but consequences of your intentions. You could play the ball with
advantage not only because of the pass, but because of your positioning on the pitch and even the way

your body was placed, for instance.
Secondly, you should be able to control the ball with one touch. If you needed another one, you
were not one of the best players, just a good one. If you needed an extra touch, you were playing
badly.
Thirdly – and crucial for Pep’s position as the midfielder in front of the back four – he had to
dispatch the ball to the wingers to make the pitch bigger, wider, to create spaces all over the pitch.

Cruyff didn’t comment on each position, but gave general instructions invariably full of common
sense: when talking about passing lines he would warn players that they didn’t need to position
themselves in the corners because that reduced the angle of the passes. Regarding positional play, he
insisted on making sure the player stayed in his corresponding area, especially when the ball was
lost.
But Cruyff didn’t manage to convert all his ideology into a working methodology. Louis Van Gaal
helped with that. And Pep Guardiola added a new twist to his version: ‘I steal ideas, ideas are

shared, they go from one person to another.’
Consequently, for Pep, a meeting with Cruyff would give him an opportunity to seek guidance from
his mentor: a chance to listen to some new ideas and to seek reassurance for his own. After
overcoming some initial hesitation for having supported Lluis Bassat in the 2003 presidential
elections, Guardiola knew, as we have seen, that he had bridges to build with the Dutchman – and
what better way than to make him feel important and demonstrate all the respect that he had for him

than by coming before him as an apprentice?
Guardiola always addresses Cruyff in the ‘usted’ form – the formal ‘you’ in Spanish, a very rare,
old-fashioned habit these days. During the initial approach, be it at Cruyff’s house, at Pep’s, at a
meal, a meeting or whatever, the pupil will always show the utmost respect and humility towards his
former coach. Once the opening formalities and small talk are out of the way there’s suddenly a spark
and, BANG, they start talking about football. Arms are waved around energetically, the arguments are
passionate, the ideas clear. They speak and act from their hearts and everything from then on is

football, football and more football. You would never hear Pep disagree and say, ‘You’re wrong’ to
Cruyff. Never. But they will discuss and debate for hours, trying to convince the other of their own
views. When it comes to football, they both talk the same language. If football is a religion, they both
worship at the same shrine.
On that occasion, though, after the Racing draw, the pupil met the master mostly to raise concerns
and to listen to answers. Cruyff had already given Guardiola some advice in the summer that the

young coach took to heart: ‘You should know how to avoid problems, handle journalists, rumours,
even the news that is unrelated to football. You must know how to make risky decisions given little