WHEN RENOWNED SPANISH journalist Guillem Balague was approached by a publishing company to sound out ideas for his next book and one man’s name came to mind: Pep Guardiola.
Despite the fact that he didn’t do face-to-face interviews with the press and only spoke to the media via press conferences, Balague decided that the then Barcelona manager would be the focus of his next work.
Little did he know that this would prove to be Guardiola’s last year in charge of the Catalan club and his book, Pep Guardiola: Another Way Of Winning, would help chronicle the last months of Pep’s reign, as well as telling the story of man who went from ballboy to head coach at the Camp Nou.
How to solve a problem like Guardiola
After settling on the idea of writing Pep’s biography, Guillem Balague was set the task of trying to get some time with a man who is notoriously press shy.
“I said I would only do the book if I could talk with Pep and he was not talking to anybody so it was my job to convince him,” Balague told TheScore.ie in Belfast this week. “It was pretty easy actually. I was very surprised.”
As well as gaining some invaluable one-on-one time with the manager, Guardiola afforded Balague the luxury of access to his star players and backroom staff.
“There were no limits. It was just unbelievable. We would do those interviews inside the changing rooms or inside the training camp and considering I am an Espanyol fan and Pep knows that I was in contact with Jose Mourinho and stuff like that, what a thing to do.”
As well as this, Guardiola intervened when Balague failed to gain an interview with Alex Ferguson, personally sending the Manchester United manager an email which resulted in an interview that would eventually form the foreword to the book. The La Liga correspondent for Sky narrowly missed being on the wrong end of Ferguson’s “hair-dryer” treatment after arriving 45 minutes late for the scheduled interview, due to unforeseen traffic problems.
“The thing that made me aware all was not usual was I had all these cars behind and in-front of me with the players in them, also struggling to make it to the training ground. So, I suppose, if he was going to tell anybody off it was going to be them, so by the time he meets me he will have calmed down. He was fine; he was smiling, when the cameras are not on him he’s the nicest, nicest guy. It was so fantastic to see him so animated talking about Pep or Pepe as he calls him. It really was something.”
Guardiola the player, the coach, the man.
The book talks in-depth about all aspects of the relationship between Pep Guardiola and Barcelona Football Club. From his beginnings as a ball-boy, trying to get his idol’s Michel Platini’s autograph in a friendly match to agonising how to keep a young Lionel Messi onside when he became manager.
As a manager, Guardiola is equally coveted as he is liked among the top clubs in world football and it is very rare that so much interest has been directed at a manager. What is his allure?
“I’m fascinated by the fascination for him because he is only a manager,” admitted Guillem. “You’ve got a guy who is at the top behaving against a guy who is at the top and not behaving on purpose, so people tend to side with one or the other.”
And while Guardiola may be the most sought-after manager around at this moment, Balague refuses to get caught up in all the romanticism. “I’ve got people in Sky that are absolutely in love with him. I am not. I can see what a powerful personality you have to have to deal with everything and I admire that, no doubt. I absolutely admire what he has done for football.”
So where next for Guardiola?
It is the question that has got the likes of Rafa Benitez and Roberto Mancini looking over their shoulders and it seems everybody wants to know where Gaurdiola is going next. The simple answer is he hasn’t decided yet. The book talks of Manchester City’s boardroom manoeuvres and of Abramovich’s desires to make Pep Chelsea manager one day but this is still all speculation.
So where does the man who spent so much time with Guardiola think he should go? “See, Arsenal have a lot to go for. Arsenal to me are like a miracle. In 10 years’ time people will say “My God” when they see what they went through and how competitive they still were.
“They were loyal to their ideas and of course they didn’t always win but they were creating something. This idea of a club that’s very well run, he could choose the coaches for the younger sides, the methods, the way of working. He could create a dynasty there.”
Balague then, rather pointedly claimed, “He wants to be in London as well,” before adding “but you never know what is going to happen. Make sure you put that in! I don’t know where he is going because nobody does.”
You can buy Guillem Balague’s book here:
