Manchester City has won the managerial jackpot.
Although Pep Guardiola—out of contract with Bayern Munich at the end of the current Bundesliga season—was being linked with and pursued by a number of high-profile clubs, the Blues announced Monday that they have signed the Spaniard to a three-year deal.
Considered the best manager in club soccer and the hottest managerial free agent on the market, Guardiola will take over from Manuel Pellegrini prior to the 2016–17 Premier League campaign
Here are three quick thoughts on Guardiola joining Manchester City:
Good for Man City, bad for Man United and Chelsea
The rich get richer.
Manchester City is the richest club in the Premier League, and boasts both a roster that on paper is the best in England with a number of world-class stars and a top-notch youth academy.
Now they have the man considered to be the best manager in the club game—Guardiola won an amazing 14 trophies during his four seasons in charge at Barcelona, and has accumulated five (so far) with Bayern Munich.
In securing Guardiola, Manchester City not only strengthened itself, but also dealt a blow to rivals Manchester City and Chelsea, who were interested in procuring the former Barcelona midfielder’s services. Now they have to settle for someone else.
The timing of the announcement might seem unfair to Pellegrini as the current season is still going on. But it’s hard to imagine City would have publicly revealed the news without consulting the Chilean. What’s more, this allows Pellegrini extra time to ingratiate himself to prospective future employers, and there will no shortage of teams interested in talking to him.
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The Barca way at Man City
City has long wanted to duplicate Barcelona, aspiring to play the “Barca way’’—a quick, pass-and-move, attacking style with a focus on ball retention and winning the ball back as quickly as possible after losing possession.
The Blues have been working on this for some time now, having negotiated with Guardiola four years ago. They have also previously signed two former Barcelona executives in Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain to its board in 2012. Both were key figures behind the scenes at Barcelona when the Catalan club dominated the club game in the years before their departure. At Barca, Begiristain served as director of football, the same role he fills now for Man City.
Now City has the final piece of the puzzle in Guardiola, the architect of Barcelona’s on-field revolution who built the team into a European and global power during his tenure in charge.
Tough task ahead with Man City
For all their wealth and flexing of their muscles in the transfer market, Manchester City has underwhelmed.
Yes, they’ve won Premier League titles and the FA Cup over the past few years. European success, however, eludes them. The Blues have failed to advance beyond the Round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League in four campaigns under Roberto Mancini and Pellegrini.
You don’t spend the kind of money City has just to win domestic titles—you do it to add European silverware to the trophy cabinet. On that front, City has fallen well short, this despite having a squad boasting players the calibre of Sergio Aguero and David Silva.
City has also been unable to shed this under-achieving malaise in the 2015–16 Premier League. This season is wide open for a team such as City to dominate, especially with Manchester United and Chelsea struggling. Instead, the Blues have looked like anything but a dominant force on the domestic front—they currently sit tied for second in the table when they should be running away with it.
Too often, Manchester City looks to be exactly the sum of it parts and nothing more. That’s completely unacceptable for such a wealthy team with the resources it has at its disposal. The challenge for Guardiola will be to transform this team of talented under-achievers into world-beaters.
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