Pep Guardiola

This is a very enjoyable book to read. As a diehard football fan with a weakness for tactics and philosophy behind every play, this book really hit the spot for me. And there's arguably no better person to analyse when it comes to tactical mastery than Pep Guardiola.And he really doesn't disappoints. The book eloquently portray the complete picture of Pep Guardiola, from the days of his childhood, to La Masía, to becoming the captain of Barcelona, to exile, to assembling what in my opinion as the most exciting team ever play the game of football (Barcelona 2008-2012, that won 14 trophies in just under 4 years). All the struggles, the hard works, the fighting, the opportunities, the doubts, the glories, the pressure, the ecstatic joys, the meticulously planned rules, the passion for the club all written grippingly by Guillem Balague.The same template is repeated with the coverage of Pep's time in Bayern München (2013-2016, that won 7 trophies in 3 years) where Pep’s footballing philosophy was implemented with much greater varieties and insane evolution of the modern game. For instance, at one match he deployed a 2-3-5 formation that left only 2 defenders, Xabi Alonso as a holding midfielder plus 2 full backs that turned into midfielders, and the remaining 5 as strikers (a pyramid formation last used in the 1890s!), or another match where Bayern changed formation 7 times, or that match against Juventus where Pep used 4 wingers at once (and won).The book also illustrate the difficulties of managing star players and their inflated egos, especially when there are more than 1 star competing for the same spots, as well as the difficulties of transferring Pep's philosophy onto several rigid or entitled players. And it also portrays a vivid picture of the pressure that football managers constantly receive from the fans, the club hierarchies, and the media.While the football stories are fantastic, I actually learn a lot more from the way Guardiola conduct himself. From his discipline, intellect, and respect for others, to the way he carry himself in many different situations, to how he meticulously planning ahead of the opportunities and risks, how he revamp the club to embody his footballing philosophy (even arranging different lunch seating all the time to ensure no small groups formed within the squad), down to practicing the small specific moves after analysing the opponent and/or the situation. Lessons that can be implemented in many other areas of life.Perhaps my favourite part of the book is when on top of having learned from being managed by top coaches such as Cruyff, Robson, Van Gaal, Mazzone, and Capello, before taking the job as a coach Guardiola still travels around Argentina to learn a lot from coaching legends Ricardo La Volpe, César Luis Menotti, and of course the fabled meeting with Marcelo Bielsa where he spent 11 hours in Bielsa’s villa and came out of it bringing a book full of notes from cover to cover. My other favourite part of the book is at the very last chapter when Pep talked on Catalan radio in memory of Johan Cruyff that has just recently died, which reveals a lot about Pep's footballing philosophy that is heavily influenced by Cruyff's way of thinking.The only drawback for me is the untidy timeline of the book. Yes it reads like a documentary, with all the back and forth in the timeline, which is fine. Exciting, in fact. But it is exactly because of this that many topics become overlapping, with the unnecessary intention of seeing several events from different vantage points (from Pep, from the players, from the club president, etc).For example, it occurs in the story of Pep vs Mourinho, which was already told in the early chapters but then repeated in part III chapter 6, and it is also occurs in the story of problems with Zlatan Ibrahimović that was scattered across the chapters that makes it confusing in which season did he exactly played for Barca. But it is perhaps most obviously occur in the story of the end of Pep's tenure in Barca, which was told at such gruesome length right at the beginning of the book, which then proceeded to be re-told again 4-5 more times.But nevertheless, in the end of the day it is a beautifully written book, a very thorough book. A book that paid attention to so much details that Pep himself probably could not express his life and his philosophy this well. It is a book that teaches us a lot about the modern game of football and its arguably maestro inventor. And it is a very passionate book written by someone who clearly live and breathe football.The book ends with one chapter about Pep's move to Manchester City in 2016 and his potential set up for the English Premier League team. And as we all now know in 2021, Pep eventually has a tremendous success at City, with this season the club is on the way of winning Pep's 3rd league crown, his 9th trophy overall in 5 seasons. And so, his success story continues.

Missed Pep's time at FC Barcelona? This book will catch you up. Good, fair reporting that reveals what was happening behind the scenes from 2008-2012. Recommended.

I was so pleased to have purchased this one! I love Barcelona football, am a great admirer of Pep Guardiola and it was a delight to find out what went on behind the scenes. From never being a fan of Bayern Munich, I now watch some of their games and follow what's going on, all due to Pep! Thank you for a book that I couldn't put down.

Excellent book for football fans. You get to understand how to play football, to love the game and to get into the head of an amazing coach. Sublimly written, a must read!

No problems

Pep will go down as the greatest football coach of all time. This book show you why. Yes he had/has good players but he has always made good players great.

This book gives fantastic insight to Guardiola & Barcelona. What they managed to achieve is nothing short of extraordinary and this boos gives intimate knowledge as to events going on behind the scenes that fans aren't typically aware of.Kudos to the author and everyone that's a part of arguably the greatest football team in the history of the sport.

For those who are football fans (soccer) this book gives some good insights into the International and professional game and also some good ideas for any leader!

My interest in watching football has slowly increased in recent yearsafter a belated start. The success of Barcelona FC could not go unnoticedeven by a novice like myself. I wanted to know more and find out what separatesthe big successful clubs. Also, to know how much the team manager really mattersamongst a large staff entourage.I enjoyed this book immensely as the author clearly is well connected withmany luminaries in European Football and with Barcelona FC in particular.The Writer's personal interviews and quotations are numerous. Hispassion and knowledge are also acutely apparent.The most enjoyable aspect of the book for me was the fact that many greatinsights were highlighted as to how to manage a talented group of people(in this instance footballers) into a unit following a vision in a competitiveenvironment. Pep is responsible for ensuring that instructions within the groupare understood and followed so that the game plans may be successful more oftenthan not. Putting team ideology before individual egos is no mean feat when somany of the players are millionaires. This book successfully humanises sporting icons,especially Lionel Messi and Zlatan IbrahimovicThe background into Pep's family, his village and early training at Barcelona wasskilfully presented and one can see how the culture at the club (including the fans)is passed on. The role of great coaches over long periods such as Johann Cruyff is clear.Pep is depicted as an intense, passionate, honest, private, ambitious and imperfectcompetitor. No where is this clearer in his public spats with Jose Mourinho.I particularly found Pep's choice to manage the reserve side as opposed to theprestigious Youth Academy interesting and an impressive way start out in management.Throughout the book the tactics, the philosophy and culture of the team is clear.Managing with Pep's style of staying focused on the 'big picture' while at the same timechanging his mind often and at the last minute is intriguing. Pep's belief in usingloyalty, culture, the appearance of good manners, humility and camaraderie are asimportant as tactics on the field.The book shows how Pep remained a student of football and learned from relentlesslytalking to peers, friends and family. The Barca style of playing football by keepingpossession of the ball, involving the keeper as a sweeper, using a ghost striker (therebymaking marking difficult for the opposition, having a few captains and finding Messi onthe field (who scored more goals than most) is fascinating. This and attacking from deepproduced great respect from opponents and astonishing results. The emulation and interestof others worldwide, in the Barca way of managing and winning is already legendary.If I have one minor criticism it is the inevitable repetition that arises from writingthe book in chapters of special interest. Such as handling difficult players, the influenceof Messi, leaving Barcelona or signing for Bayern Munich (to name a few) This way, factsand topics in the book aren't always presented in chronological order. Overlapping ofinformation does occur between chapters when information is relevant to more than one chapter.This isn't a deterrent, nor an irritant. For me though, the repetition was obvious and notalways necessary.This is a good read for football fans and especially those interested in the managerialaspects of the sport. Its a well researched book, written in an easy to read style.The anecdotes are many and I was left wanting to know more about football tactics.I recommend people interested in football management to buy this book.

This is a fascinating read into the life of football coach Pep Guardiola. The book covers his career as a player all the way to his second season in charge at Manchester City.Pep leads from different sports and applies what he learns into improving the game of football. It's great to see how he has adapted and won trophies in three different leagues so far. You can tell he still has a lot more to bring to the game.The book is very well written and I recommend it to anyone in sports or business.

Needs updating to reflect his time at City, albeit there’s much more to come there. Well worth a read anyway. His impact on football worldwide has been amazing.

An insight into arguably the greatest manager in the modern game which has been perfectly written and constructed by Guillem Balague.I'm not normally a fan of Guillem but he has won me over with this book and it's one i just couldn't put down for a long time!

Just finishing reading this book and I found it to be full of excellent insight into the background, mindset, tactical approach and career of Pep. A great player who then became a great manager, and had the privelage of operating at football's sharp end. Highly recommended!