English football enchants Pep Guardiola in a way that has surprised him across eight years on these shores. The culture of it all, more than anything. The sounds, the smells, the deep pyramid, the relentlessness. Even the cold windy nights when you might need to mix it. He’s come to perversely enjoy those.
There had been an appreciation of how different the Premier League was to La Liga, or even the Bundesliga, beforehand but the way the sport breathes from every pore of this country has spellbound Manchester City’s manager.
He loves Manchester, sure. Sure, he loves City – for the environment created, the autonomy afforded. But what is often overlooked is that he also loves England the sporting organism.
He loves British footballers. He loves the traditional spirit. He loves the way the country has evolved its development of youngsters into more technically able players while maintaining that renowned grit. It’s always made him think this national team ought to earn pre-eminence on the world stage.
He’ll have been thinking long and hard since that approach from the FA came months back because, for a man who openly wants international management to form part of his future, jobs don’t come much bigger.
Pep Guardiola has been charmed by English football more than he would have ever expected
He has shown an affinity for English players and will have long mulled over the FA’s approach
His Champions League-winning team had multiple England stars and he has tried to buy others
Especially given he’ll never coach Spain, owing to his views on Catalan independence, and particularly given his attitude towards the talent at this country’s disposal. If there has ever been a chance to sign an Englishman deemed good enough for the Premier League champions, and the money is considered to be right, he would rather them.
That represents a very small Venn diagram yet Guardiola has committed close to £250million on England internationals during his time at City. That number would have been considerably higher had they pulled off swoops for Harry Kane or Declan Rice. Even so, when City completed the Treble that balmy night in Istanbul, they finished the evening with four homegrowners on the pitch – the same number as Sir Alex Ferguson had when achieving that feat in 1999.
One, John Stones, was undoubtedly man of the match while operating in midfield – his performance the hallmark of City’s run to winning the lot, a daring game of waltzing through Inter in proof that the local lads understand the nuances of Guardiola as well. That’s not just reserved for the Iberians.
And then another who changed the course of that final. Phil Foden hadn’t made the starting XI and was called when Kevin De Bruyne suffered a hamstring tear that would have ramifications for the next nine months.
He is treated hard by Guardiola, Foden. Always has been. There is something paternal about the relationship and so with that the 24-year-old is judged differently. He’s been left out for long spells – although this year’s omissions early in the season were down to illness – and has to fight that bit harder.
So when he won those individual awards after a storming campaign last term, it provided vindication. For him, for sticking with the plan, and for Guardiola the coming of age of somebody sporting director Txiki Begiristain showed him clips of on day one back in 2016.
Guardiola’s friend, Marti Perarnau, writes in his latest book, “The Pep Revolution”, that City’s boss had told him to remember Foden’s name just two months into the job as the pair of them had dinner at the Chinese restaurant, Wing’s – and that he’d hoped to give him a debut at 16. Perarnau calls Foden Guardiola’s ‘second son’.
‘I couldn’t have had a better person to help me along the way in Pep,’ Foden told Mail Sport earlier this year. ‘He gave me the trust in big games at such a young age. I’ve never seen anyone like him. It’s funny, I feel like he sometimes thinks I’m still that little boy, which I don’t mind.’
Phil Foden is his ‘second son’ according to one book and he could make the star the fulcrum of his England side if he took the full-time job
Guardiola also has unfinished business with Cole Palmer and could reunite with him
He has great respect for Harry Kane and City made several attempts to sign the striker
Guardiola has worked and worked on Foden, desperate for him to become the perfect hybrid of blistering, devastating– as is self-evident – and calmer in his decision-making.
The latter has taken time but is coming to the fore now. It’s why a Guardiola England would have Foden in the middle of the pitch. Would he also finally be the man to grab hold of Jude Bellingham and tell him his role is a No 8, an all-action midfielder, rather than awkwardly shoehorning the country’s two outstanding talents into the same spots? Given his aura, that feels highly likely.
His respect for Kane is well-documented and landed Guardiola in trouble with Mauricio Pochettino a few years back when labelling Tottenham ‘The Harry Kane Team’, while City have in the past flirted with deals for Eberechi Eze and Ben Chilwell. With all three of those players, cost was prohibitive in part of the decision not to pursue. Add Rice to that list, with City pulling out of a bidding war with Arsenal.
Cole Palmer’s role in all of this is intriguing. In the fullness of time, Guardiola might well come out and admit City made a mistake selling him – as a few around the club suggested when Chelsea announced the maverick forward. Palmer wanted more minutes, and was about to sort a loan move to Vincent Kompany’s Burnley, when City decided it was either stay put or go permanently.
It feels likely that Guardiola would deploy Jude Bellingham as an all-action number eight
Guardiola would relish the challenge of trying to get the most out of England’s varied talents
The FA contacted Guardiola this summer and there is a sense Lee Carsley will not get the job
Like Foden before him, Palmer’s introduction to the first team had been slow. Arguably too slow and in the Treble year, chances often arose on the left wing – not an area Palmer naturally flourishes. Guardiola wanted him to stay, Palmer wanted to stay, but the emergence of Oscar Bobb – coupled with the £42m on offer by Chelsea – swung the pendulum.
There feels like unfinished business in that regard and Palmer had huge admirers for his ability in City training – earning the sort of praise rarely reserved for anybody, especially one so young. He is now integral to England’s future and if anybody can find a way of formulating a team to include Palmer, Foden, Bellingham and Bukayo Saka, it’s Guardiola. The exact sort of tactical challenge this guy relishes.