Page 91 - Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography

pills throughout his tenure, particularly in his final season in charge.
One of the first decisions that Guardiola took was to make sure that all the money collected from
fines that were imposed on the squad went to a charitable organisation, instead of going towards team
meals, as was the custom. The sanctions couldn’t contribute to a reward for the team, hence he thought

of a much more supportive use for them. At the start of his first season, he donated the proceeds to the
Sant Joan de Déu Foundation, which investigates Rett’s Syndrome, a serious mental illness.
When Pep signed a marketing agreement with Sabadell Bank, committing to a number of lectures
and personal interviews as part of the deal – while still refusing to give one-to-one interviews to the
media – he was initially labelled a money-grabber by some of his critics. However, he was soon
vindicated when it emerged that he had shared out all the money he received from the bank between
his staff as a way of acknowledging their dedication to a project in which each person had done his

bit. Meanwhile, the bank was delighted with an upturn in their number of clients, a 48 per cent
increase in Catalonia and 65 per cent in Madrid.
At the start of the season Audi, as they do every year, presented a car to each first-team player as
well as the coach; Pep, however, refused to accept his: if there were no cars for his technical staff,
then he would not take one either.
In November of Pep’s first year in charge, the goalkeeping coach, Juan Carlos Unzué, lost his

father after a long illness. Guardiola didn’t have to think twice – despite the fact that Barça had a
game the following day, the first-team coach rearranged the entire pre-match schedule to take the
squad to Orkoien in Navarra, 223 miles away, to attend the funeral.
The season was going well. Aside from a poor run of three draws in March (against Betis, Lyon
and Mallorca) and two defeats (against Espanyol and Atlético de Madrid) that led to some
reactionary criticism from certain quarters, the overall feeling among the supporters was one of
euphoria. There was a sense that, under Pep Guardiola, something special was happening at the Nou

Camp.
Their football seemed to dominate the opposition, with a high percentage of possession and
effective pressure high up the field; Xavi, Iniesta, Eto’o and Henry seemed entirely different players
from the season before and the new additions to the team were an improvement. ‘I feel strong and
optimistic,’ was how Pep described his feelings around that time. Barça bounced back from their
mini crisis in that spring of 2009 by going on a run of nine consecutive wins. This spell was followed

by two draws – against Valencia (2-2) in La Liga and Chelsea in the 0-0 first leg of the Champions
League semi-final) – that made the end of the season run-in tense and unforgettable.
The Clásico at the Bernabéu that May would be decisive. Going into that match, Barcelona were
top with five games remaining and, with the two arch rivals separated by four points, a win for
Guardiola’s side would effectively guarantee that the title would be heading back to the Camp Nou.
Pep treated the game against Real Madrid like a cup final and demanded the same bold approach
that he had seen from his team throughout the season. ‘We want to be champions, don’t we?’ he asked

his players in the days leading up to the visit to Madrid. ‘Now is the time to take this step. I only ask
that we go out there with our heads held high because these are the games that define us, they are what
do our job justice.’
For such a pivotal match, Guardiola was considering handing Messi the tremendous responsibility
of playing as a false striker for the first time. Guardiola had already won the confidence of the little
Argentinian and had started the process of building a team around him at that stage. But the

relationship between coach and player hadn’t always been that easy.