PEP
CONFIDENTIAL
INSIDE PEP GUARDIOLA’S FIRST SEASON
AT BAYERN MUNICH
First published in Great Britain in 2014 by
ARENA SPORT
An imprint of Birlinn Limited
West Newington House
10 Newington Road
Edinburgh
EH9 1QS
www.arenasportbooks.co.uk
Published in association with
BACKPAGE PRESS
www.backpagepress.co.uk
Copyright © Martí Perarnau, 2014
Translation © Louise Hunter, 2014
ISBN: 9781909715257
eBook ISBN: 9780857908179
First published in Spain in 2014 by Rocca Editorial as
Herr Pep
The right of Martí Perarnau to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form, or by any means electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written permission of the publisher.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library.
Designed and typeset by Polaris Publishing, Edinburgh
Printed and bound by Clays St Ives
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Part One – Time, Patience, Passion
|
1.
| Dinner with Kasparov
|
2.
| ‘I Need to know Everything about the Club, as Quickly as Possible.’
|
3.
| ‘I Could see myself Coaching Here One Day.’
|
4.
| ‘They will be at the Vanguard of European Football for the Next Five Years.’
|
5.
| ‘I’m Desperate to watch Training – I Want to see what Pep Decides to Change.’
|
6.
| ‘Leo, It’s Pep. Can you come over? Now, Please.’
|
7.
| ‘Do you see Lahm’s Potential?’
|
8.
| ‘Thiago’s Coming.’
|
9.
| ‘The Idea is to Dominate the Ball.’
|
10.
| ‘We Don’t have a Messi or a Ronaldo – But we have the Right Collective Mentality.’
|
11.
| ‘Who are our Unstoppable Guys? Ribéry and Robben.’
|
12.
| ‘They’ll Climb that Mountain 10 Times in a Row.’
|
13.
| ‘I told Rosell I Would be Going 6000km away from him.’
|
14.
| ‘Borussia Deserved to win.’
|
Part Two – The First Trophy
|
15.
| ‘Maybe it was a Mistake.’
|
16.
| ‘What do you know about Athleticism?’
|
17.
| ‘Javi, Look at Dante, Look at Dante, The Line, The Line!’
|
18.
| ‘It’s not Possession that Matters, But the Intention Behind it.’
|
19.
| ‘I Don’t have any Midfielders.’
|
20.
| We’re Trying to do this Right, Not Just Win Titles.’
|
21.
| ‘Bring the Ball Out Well and you will Play Well.’
|
22.
| ‘I Loathe all that Passing – That Tiquitaca.’
|
23.
| ‘Lahm … The Guy is Fucking Exceptional!’
|
24.
| ‘Pam! Pam! That’s our Style of Play!’
|
25.
| ‘Bayern were like something out of a Movie Today.’
|
26.
| ‘Lads, I don’t know how to take Penalties. I’ve Never Taken One in My Life. But here’s the Best Penalty Taker in the World.’
|
Part Three – 2013: A Prodigious Year
|
27.
| ‘Right Now I’m not the best in the world.’
|
28.
| ‘Hoeness is the Heart and soul of this Club – He’s Vital to me.’
|
29.
| ‘We are all Hiding Behind the Coach.’
|
30.
| ‘Gentlemen, this is Tiquitaca and it is Shit.’
|
31.
| The Treasure Map
|
32.
| ‘Lahm? he’s as Football-Intelligent as Iniesta.’
|
33.
| ‘For 80 Minutes we Played Perfect Football – The Best Football I’ve seen in my Life.’
|
34.
| ‘If anyone would Prefer me not to make the Decisions, No Problem. You Decide who’s Going to Play.’
|
35.
| ‘I’m not Saying my Way is Better. It’s Just my Way.’
|
36.
| ‘Diego! I Love You!’
|
37.
| ‘Put the Good Players in the Midfield. That’s my Idea and I’m Going to Stick with it.’
|
38.
| ‘The Whole Club has told me that Franck wants to Talk to me. I want to Talk to him, too.’
|
39.
| ‘Excellence is Like a Bubble. You can Look for it, But it only Appears from Time to Time.’
|
40.
| ‘Mistakes Come when you Relax.’
|
41.
| ‘Here we are Again. Another Final.’
|
Part Four – The League in March
|
42.
| ‘In Six Months here Pep has Tried more things than in Four Years at Barça.’
|
43.
| ‘I’m Going to have to make some Radical Changes.’
|
44.
| ‘I Look at the Footage of our Opponents and then Try to Work out how to Demolish them.’
|
45.
| ‘Perfect Football is Damn Difficult to Achieve.’
|
46.
| ‘He’s so Intense that he’ll Exhaust us.’
|
47.
| ‘They like the Idea of Telling Their Friends: I Play for Pep Guardiola.’
|
48.
| ‘Just as well we had Manu. Without that Hand I Don’T know where we’d be.’
|
49.
| ‘Lahm Brings this Team to Life.’
|
50.
| ‘I’ve Gone for Control. Control and more Control.’
|
51.
| ‘Uli is Our Heart. It’s Hard to Imagine Bayern without him.’
|
52.
| ‘Picking a Line-Up is Like Sitting in Front of your Chess Pieces.’
|
53.
| ‘I Love You Pep. You are in my Heart, Man.’
|
Part Five – Falling Down and Getting Back up Again
|
54.
| ‘It Hurts – It makes you Feel like your Skin is Burning.’
|
55.
| ‘Always Pick the Good Ones. Always.’
|
56.
| ‘The Essence of Football is Working out the Best way to attack your Opponents.’
|
57.
| ‘I’ve Never Played like this … Not Even in my Boldest Days at Barça.’
|
58.
| ‘Arjen’s a Beast.’
|
59.
| ‘I don’t Consider Myself a Good Coach.’
|
60.
| ‘We have to Remember that if we don’t Run, we’re Nothing.’
|
61.
| ‘A Complete Fuck-Up.’
|
62.
| I Saw Pep Utterly Beaten for the First Time.’
|
63.
| Mea Culpa
|
64.
| ‘All Teams go through Different Phases’
|
65.
| ‘Javi And Robben, in Defence and Attack’
|
66.
| Bloom in the Glow of Happiness
|
67.
| The Kid and the Captain
|
Epilogue – A Last Word from Pep
Plate Section
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
‘When a club like Bayern calls you have to respond.’ Guardiola prepares to greet a press pack of 247 journalists – the biggest number ever to attend such an event at the club – at his official announcement as Bayern Munich head coach.
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‘Any team that has won four titles doesn’t need much of an overhaul.’ The images of Bayern’s treble-winning players loom large over Guardiola in the home changing room at the Allianz Arena.
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Despite insisting that his squad did not need many new personnel, Guardiola’s technical revolution meant a sharp learning curve for his players, who would have to adapt their traditional German style to a more possession-based approach.
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Guardiola surprised his new players by conversing with them in passable German during training sessions. ‘Our language on the pitch is all about giving instructions,’ he said.
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‘I know how much this means to him, his first title. I also know about his old rivalry with Mourinho.’ Franck Ribéry celebrates with Guardiola after his second-half strike against Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in the UEFA Super Cup in August 2013. The Frenchman dedicated his man-of-the-match award to his new boss.
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‘Have you seen how well Lahm anticipates the next pass? How he turns and protects the ball? He can play on the wing or in the middle of the field.’ Guardiola’s conversion of Bayern captain Philipp Lahm from right-back to midfield linchpin was one of the foundations of their success
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Teenage midfielder Pierre-Emile Højbjerg was quickly identified by Guardiola as a prodigious talent and would go on to feature in the DFB-Pokal final in May after a traumatic season in which he lost his father. ‘He’s shown me how important it is to play without fear. Just to get on with playing whether you’re up against Xabi Alonso or a complete amateur,’ said Højbjerg.
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