A treble that cements Pep Guardiola’s position in pantheon of greats

When this unusual season paused, Lionel Messi became the best player of his generation. When it ended, Pep Guardiola settled the argument about him being an era-defining manager.

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You could say the argument had been settled earlier. A 100-point Premier League season, 11 major trophies in seven years in England, a treble with Barcelona, improving elite players and changing the way people perceive and play football are rare accomplishments. Guardiola has spoken of his career being exceptional. Equally, he has accepted that “to get recognition of everyone in the world, Manchester City needed to conquer Europe.”

It took almost 15 years since the takeover by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan for that to happen and it wasn’t pretty in the way City usually take down teams. But finals are meant to be won and not played is one of sport’s truisms. Rodri’s 68th minute bender in the 1-0 win against Inter Milan ensured that with their 17th trophy since 2008 City could shed the weight.

Guardiola too. No longer will it be said that he conquered Europe only with a team that had Messi. Each hug after his 12th title felt like they were 12 years in waiting. “It was written in the stars,” he said.

It was prophetic too that City’s first Champions League trophy came in Istanbul. It was there in 1968-69 that City’s debut in Europe had ended in a 1-2 aggregate first round loss. Decades of hurt, hate and relegation followed till at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium on Saturday, a circle was completed. That it fetched a treble, a first for an English club since Manchester United in 1998-99, was a bonus.

It needed a squad worth $1.3 billion, one where Jack Grealish’s $126m transfer fee was worth more than Inter’s line-up against AC Milan in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final, but a remedy for ‘City-itis’, the fear that things will only go wrong, has been found.

Developed and rolled out by Guardiola, the panacea was successful in England but hadn’t worked in Europe. Would the “correct proportion of obsession and desire”, in Guardiola’s words, going into the final, work? It didn’t seem to for most of the night.

“Relax, relax,” Guardiola could be seen saying after another Ederson brain fade, his third in the first 25 minutes. Guardiola was on his fours when Ederson did not anticipate Manuel Akanji’s backpass and a chance opened up for Lautaro Martinez who spurned it by going solo when a pass to Romelu Lukaku looked like the better option.

By then, Francesco Acerbi had set down a marker by softening up Erling Haaland with an early tackle. Inter kept the Norwegian goal machine quiet barring a drive that Andre Onana deflected. That was also the only time Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne had managed a threatening link-up. Then, De Bruyne had to be substituted, for the second successive Champions League final, because of injury.

Inter’s wingbacks Federico Dimarco and Denzel Dumfries stifling Grealish and Bernardo Silva, the former more than the latter, and their high press meant City were far from their fluent self. Cup finals are Simone Inzaghi’s thing – this was his first loss in eight finals as manager and he had won five of them as a player.

Like France in the 2014 Davis Cup final against a Switzerland team that had Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka, Inter were making things difficult for their fancied opponents. After Rodri struck from range and Phil Foden had broken through but could not beat Onana, City needed Ederson to be at his best to deny Lukaku and Acerbi. Dimarco had a header that grazed the horizontal. Like Switzerland in pursuit of their first Davis Cup title and with Federer playing despite a terrible back, City hung in there. “We were lucky,” said Guardiola. “We clearly deserved more,” said Inter manager Inzaghi.

In 46 days after Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile barrier in 1954, his timing was bettered. In one year, three more did it. “The unreachable had become a benchmark,” said a Harvard Business Review article. It could happen to City who are the first new champions since Chelsea in 2012.

Clearly, money won’t be an issue. They top the list of 32 most prominent clubs, according to the Football Benchmark Report. City, who also headlined the Deloitte Football Money League this year, were worth $4.39 billion, ahead of Real Madrid and Manchester United, the report said.

Since Guardiola took over in 2016, City have spent £1.04bn ($1.31bn). Manchester United have spent £1.077bn ($1.35bn). But City’s net spend has been £478m ($600.87m) because they recovered £596m ($749.20m) through player sales. Manchester United could recover £242m. Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Paris St-Germain, Bayern Munich, Real and Barcelona haven’t scrimped in that period. And in the 1990s, Inter would regularly break transfer records. After all, football aristocracy too was built on spending. Even as they fight 115 charges of financial malpractice, City and Guardiola have never shied from making the point.

Money’s important but Guardiola has been the differentiator between City and the other fat cats. He added a dimension to Philipp Lahm’s game and both Bayern Munich and Germany benefited. He is doing that to John Stones, Foden, Haaland and Grealish. And it was Guardiola who got Messi to play false nine. From there to fitting in Haaland and getting him to drop into midfield shows that continuous self-renewal has been one of Guardiola’s most enduring mantras.

Barcelona had released Ronaldinho, Deco and Samuel Eto’o when he took charge, and with a clutch of academy players Guardiola showed pressing and possession could make them the best in Europe. When he joined City, they had begun to win titles but had none of the relentlessness and consistency that has fetched 27 wins in their last 28 games.

Guardiola is known to be an obsessive who didn’t forget to point out Ederson’s errors even as City burst Arsenal’s Premier League title hopes. An obsessive who at Bayern analysed Benfica for so long that it gave him a back problem. Like Andrea Pirlo, Gianluigi Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini and David Trezeguet who stayed on when Juventus were relegated, Guardiola has been loyal. When City were slapped 115 charges by the league, Guardiola said “more than ever” he would stay.

As confetti rained when Ilkay Gundogan lifted the Champions Trophy, Guardiola had the smile of a man relieved and content, his position in the pantheon of great managers cemented. At 52, he has influenced the game as much as Marcelo Bielsa, Juergen Klopp, Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson, and has won more than all but one of them.