The last time Pep Guardiola looked and sounded like this, he went to New York for a year. This time he goes straight into a derby against Manchester United in the Premier League.
Guardiola – the manager of Manchester City – appears lost and tired. His podcast chat with Spanish chef Dani Garcia released this week has offered us a rare look into his soul and at times it seemed as though there was doubt and a dead battery staring back.
Asked if he would like to manage another club after City, Guardiola says: ‘I wouldn’t have the energy. The thought of starting somewhere else, all the process of training and so on. No, no, no.
‘I want to leave it and go and play golf. I think stopping then would do me good.’
This is not the Guardiola we think we know. The Guardiola we think we know does not frame conversations in terms of rest and weariness and standing still. He is typically characterised by the opposite. By energy and life and by moving forwards.
But as he stands at the start of a recently signed two-year contract extension and on the cusp of what continues to look increasingly like a major rebuild at City, his recent utterances stand at odds with all of it, with all that may be required.
Pep Guardiola is in the midst of the most trying episode in his highly decorated coaching career
Manchester City have just one win from their last 10 matches after defeat by Juventus
The manger was unexpectedly candid on a recent podcast with Spanish chef Dani Garcia
Of all the problems currently facing a team of defending champions with one win in their last 10 games, Guardiola is starting to look like the most important of them. City have injuries, out of form players and ageing stars. They can fix all that. Maybe not this season but over time.
But a Guardiola who is starting to run of gas? No, they can’t fix that. Only he can fix that and this is what brings us back to New York. Because, as we say, Guardiola is not a stranger to exhaustion and burnout. He has been down that debilitating road before.
It was in 2012 – as City were winning their very first Premier League title – that Guardiola slipped away from Barcelona, leaving behind 14 trophies won in four incredible seasons but also burdened by the mental and emotional baggage of a sapping, bitter rivalry with Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid.
‘With Mourinho, so many things happened,’ he subsequently said. ‘So many things.’
Life at Barcelona exhausted Guardiola in just four years. He was 41 when he left for that 12-month sabbatical in New York that allowed him, eventually, to start over at Bayern Munich.
He is 53 now and heading deeper into his ninth season in England. Why would we expect his battery life to be longer this time? It’s a question that becomes ever more pertinent the longer this current spell of confusion and uncertainty goes on in east Manchester.
City, as it happens, were not particularly bad in losing to Juventus in Turin on Wednesday night. They responded well to losing a goal early in the second half and were looking the more likely scorers at the time the Italians broke on them to convert their second. Sometimes football just goes like that. Games turn on moments and this one did.
Afterwards, Guardiola attempted to strike a defiant tone when speaking to TNT Sports.
The last time that the Catalan manager felt so depleted he left Barcelona and took a sabbatical
But Guardiola will have to attempt to re-route his serial champions midway through the season
‘We will appreciate what we have done in the past more in the future when we are doing it again,’ he said.
It was a nice line and he can be good at that when the mood takes him. However, mainstream media interviews are about image and projecting a message. When you have been at it as long as Guardiola has, you know what to do, what to say. It’s part of the job.
But there was a rawness and candour about that podcast interview – recorded before City’s 4-0 defeat by Tottenham back when the run was merely no wins in four games – that was quite striking and everybody with the best interests of City in their heart must only hope the impression it left was false.
For whether Kevin De Bruyne returns to his best or Jack Grealish rediscovers his Treble-winning form or Ederson remembers how to be a goalkeeper again really fades in to nothing when set against the image of Guardiola slowly fading to grey. This is the shadow that lies long over the club ahead of Sunday’s derby with United in front of their own supporters.
Guardiola looks beaten up and he may not be. Only he knows how he really feels. He will rage against the dying of the light for sure. City also have some very good players to help him rebound.
Equally, Guardiola would not win many poker games. He does not do unscrupulous very well. Much of what he is going through and living tends to be written squarely across the lines and contours of his face.
The signing of that contract last month felt like a shot in the arm for City and indeed the Premier League. How does it look right now? The truth is that it’s hard to say. And that in itself says everything.
Saudi 2034 was no surprise
The reaction to Fifa’s decision to hand Saudi Arabia the 2034 World Cup on a plate has been predictable.
We know what was wrong with the process. We know what is wrong with the outcome. But amid all the noise and the objections and the hand wringing, a question remains.
When is somebody – a national association, a coach or player – going to make a real stand against the direction in which president Gianni Infantino and his bunch of FIFA yes-men continue to drive our game?
When is somebody going to say ‘no’?
Gianni Infantino was delighted to announce Saudi Arabia as the uncontested host of the 2034 World Cup on Wednesday
Man United’s late kick-off is nonsense
Sunday’s Premier League games between Chelsea and Brentford and Southampton and Tottenham will kick-off at 7pm. This is because Chelsea and Spurs are playing in Europe on Thursday.
Chelsea do have a long haul back from Kazakhstan. Spurs, on the other hand, are returning from Glasgow. Next month, meanwhile, Manchester United will play Fulham on Sunday, January 26 at 7pm after objecting to a noon kick-off slot that day. Their preceding Thursday night game is actually at home.
And so a precedent has now been set. Chaos will undoubtedly ensue. More inconvenience to travelling supporters.
The Premier League could have treated Chelsea as a special case. Their trip is a uniquely long one. But now that they have opened the door we can expect everybody else to rush through.
It’s a nonsense.
Tuchel’s finally in town
England manager Thomas Tuchel will be at Friday’s World Cup qualifying draw in Zurich. It will be nice to see him… at last.
Thomas Tuchel will finally begin representing England at Friday’s World Cup qualifying draw
Magpies edge closer to stadium decision
Newcastle say there will be no decision on whether they will build a new stadium until next year but they say the first choice to is to stay at St James’ Park.
‘It is in a iconic location and the atmosphere gives the team a competitive edge,’ said chief operating officer Brad Miller. ‘It has 52,000 seats already and we would have to pay for all those seats again.’
Remember the days when Newcastle walked and talked like the richest club in the world?