Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the interview Pep Guardiola gave to GQ was how tired he sounded. The headlines that he was contemplating a 15-year break from the game didn’t entirely reflect what he said – “I don’t know how long I’ll stop for: a year, two years, three years, five, 10, 15, I don’t know. But I will leave after this spell with City because I need to stop and focus on myself, on my body” – but his weariness was clear.
To an extent it is not a surprise. Jürgen Klopp was exhausted (and self-aware) enough after almost 15 seasons at Dortmund and Liverpool (plus seven at Mainz) to quit last summer. There were times last season, particularly in that four-month spell either side of Christmas when City’s form dipped alarmingly, that Guardiola seemed shattered. By his own admission, his decision last November to sign a contract extension to summer 2027 was motivated in part by guilt at the downturn. “The problems we had in the last month, I felt now was not the right time to leave,” he said. The problems got much worse.
To which there can be two reactions. On the one hand, it is rare and admirable that a manager should feel such a sense of responsibility to his club. While many are sacked before they have a chance to resolve problems, there are also plenty happy enough to walk away with a pay-off and pass the crisis on to somebody else. But on the other hand, it probably is not a great sign if a manager with two years left on his contract is already looking forward to the extended holiday he is going to have when it is all over.
But management is exhausting. It was striking in the interview that the element Guardiola picked out as most debilitating was having opposing fans chanting he was going to be sacked in the morning, the sort of mundane banter that it is easy to assume just washes off managers as experienced and successful as Guardiola. Beyond that, though, it is useful to be reminded just how tough a job management is and it may be getting even tougher.
Over the course of his two autobiographies, it becomes clear how relentless Brian Clough found the grind of management: there was no time to enjoy a victory on Saturday, he said, before he was having to start thinking about the game on Wednesday. That was before the calendar was as packed as it is now and Clough was somebody quite happy to pop over to Mallorca for a holiday during the season, somebody who was noted even at the time for the infrequency of his appearances on the training pitch.
Managers today have far more help than they used to. They have specialist coaches and analysts, and their job, at least at the top level, is focused largely on preparing the team. With one or two exceptions, transfers and long-term strategy is the responsibility of a sporting director.
But still, it is an often thankless role where successes are quickly forgotten and a few bad weeks can lead to the sack. Guardiola, for all he may have disliked the banter from opposing fans, at least had enough credit in the bank not to fear that.
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And he is right; there is perhaps no other job somebody faces such unending scrutiny, such vocal criticism, from people who, frankly, know far less about it than they do (and, yes, that includes journalists, and no, that does not mean all criticism is necessarily misguided).
Guardiola has spoken with a degree of enthusiasm about the challenge of rebuilding City. Given he has a naturally sarcastic tone, it is never entirely easy to tell, but that can probably be taken at face value. One of the problems for a manager who has been in a job for an extended time, particularly when they have been as successful as Guardiola, is finding new challenges. Building a team to win the league is invigorating, stimulating, exciting, setting it going again to win again less so.
The comedian Stewart Lee wrote in his autobiography about how on long tours he would deliberately lose part of his audience because of the kick he got from winning it back; it is not to suggest Guardiola would have chosen to be in this position to say he may relish the challenge of restoring City to the title.
There is another factor, which is that very few managers remain at the very highest level for much more than a decade. Sir Alex Ferguson is an obvious counter-example, 20 years separating his first title at Manchester United from his last, even after his successes with Aberdeen, but he is an outlier who skews expectations. Arrigo Sacchi’s peak lasted about four years. Even José Mourinho was probably already past his best when he won his last league title, at Chelsea in 2014-15, 12 years after his first, at Porto.
Every game Guardiola has taken charge of since he was appointed at Barcelona in 2008 has been dissected. For 17 years – less his year off in New York – opponents have been looking for ways to stymy his attacking plans and defensive vulnerabilities. Match footage has been pored over, data crunched. Part of Guardiola’s genius has been to keep evolving, to remain ahead of his pursuers.
That has always happened, but never to the same extent as today. Teams have never been worked out so quickly; what might have taken a season 50 years ago now happens in a couple of weeks. To stay ahead is to adapt constantly and that is exhausting. There comes a point when the energy almost visibly leaves a manager, as it did with Mourinho, as it did with Arsène Wenger, and, unable to stay in front of the pack any longer, they lapse into self-parody.
Guardiola is not there yet. Managerial arcs rarely end in a cliff edge; it is not that they are suddenly finished. But no career can go on for ever upwards. After 17 years at the top, as he begins to feel the toll, it may be that the descent has begun. Which may still be enough to win City another league title, but nothing lasts for ever.
