Pep Guardiola Rondo: Is he the GOAT Premier League manager?

Pep Guardiola GFX

Pep Guardiola will reportedly leave at the end of the season, and according to those same reports, he will be replaced by Enzo Marseca. GOAL writers debate where Guardiola's legacy lies in English football.

And so another giant leaves the Premier League. This does feel like the end of an era. Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp played out some of the more memorable battles the league has ever seen for almost a decade. Klopp left Liverpool in 2024. Guardiola, it is confirmed, will leave Man City in a week.

Of course, the focus has already gone to legacy. Guardiola's City resume is truly incredible. The Spaniard has won 20 trophies as Man City manager. He has won six Premier Leagues, the Champions League, and countless domestic cups. He has done it all despite routinely changing his style of football, reinventing the way he looks at the game, and, in effect, spending the first half of every season just trying stuff out.

So, what exactly is Guardiola's legacy? The most obvious comparison, in terms of winning, is Sir Alex Ferguson. He rebuilt Man United and made winning a habit in his 26 years at the club. Guardiola, had he stayed, would have just pipped his numbers. His remit was different. There was no rebuild here. He just had to win. And win he has. GOAL writers break down Guaridola's legacy in another edition of... The Rondo.

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Was it the right time for Pep to step away?

Tom Hindle: On balance, just about. There have been rumors about this kind of thing for a while, and it always felt like the cycle was coming to an end a little bit. In truth, the departure of Kevin De Bruyne might have started things. But Bernardo Silva is also off. Rodri is talking about moving on. It was either go now or commit for another go-around. This adds up.

Ryan Tolmich: He's the only one who knows, right? It's unclear what his motivations are for this. Is he burnt out? Does he see writing on the wall? Are there politics at play? Is there another gig out there that has caught his eye? Again, only he can know, but there's also a sense of him doing everything he set out to do. It's easy to see why he'd be comfortable leaving: there's nothing left for him to really accomplish with this particular club that would change his legacy.

Manchester City FC v Chelsea FC - Premier League

Is Enzo Maresca the right choice to succeed him?

TH: Is there a right choice at all? This is going to be more or less an impossible job, perhaps one of the more difficult in football history. The Maresca argument is pretty compelling, if only because he knows the club, has worked with Pep - but not too much - and has experience in tough environments like Chelsea FC. The odds will be stacked against him, but he seems about right (with apologies to Andoni Iraola). It's a safe bet, basically.

RT: Seems to make sense. You can't judge Maresca too much on how things ended at Chelsea because, well, Chelsea. He's clearly a good coach with good ideas who can coach at a high level. Does he have the juice that Pep does, though? Few do. There are few coaches in the world that have that special sauce like Guardiola does: Ancelotti, Klopp, Mourinho, Enrique, Simeone. All are seen as masters at their craft, certified black belts of the coaching game. Maresca isn't there yet - can he get there in a way that keeps Manchester City at the top?

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What is the best next move for Pep?

TH: A beach, for a long time. Well, let's be logical here. He's done Spain, Germany, and England. It seems incredibly unlikely that he will take another job in any of those three leagues. That leaves France and Italy. The latter might be sort of compelling, but honestly, it looks like time for a break. International management has been floated for a while. Spain is logical - even if he has been very pro-Catalonia over the years. There is going to be a silly USMNT rumor at some point, and it cannot be understated how silly and unlikely that would be. Spain for Euro 2028? Or even the 2030 World Cup? Why not?

RT: Whatever the hell he wants. Want to sleep in for a few years? Go for it. Want to live in New York again to enjoy some anonymity? You deserve it. Want to wait it out for the Spain job to open up or a long-awaited Barcelona reunion a few years down the line? That's your choice! Hell, want to take an absolute bag of money to coach somewhere like Saudi Arabia or Inter Miami, or to take on a legacy gig like Brazil post-Ancelotti, or perhaps even the USMNT? That's on the table too! There is no shortage of options. He should pick whichever one sparks joy.

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Should City have gone for a bigger name manager like Vincent Kompany or Luis Enrique?

TH: Nope. Luis Enrique is a wonderful manager, but he also demands complete control. Maresca seems a good systems guy to slot into the structure. If you look at world football, the most successful teams have started employing "head coaches," not "managers." There's a difference. Maresca is a smart tactician who will defer to the big brains at the top of the org. That's important.

RT: In an ideal world, sure, Luis Enrique walks through that door, but that isn't happening. Realistically, though, there are no bigger names out there than Pep, so trying to replicate this in that way can never work. You can understand the turn to Maresca, then, who has name value, experience, and clearly knows what he's signing up for. It all clicks into place.

Nominees for the Fifa World coach of the

What is Pep's legacy in England? Is he the greatest Prem manager of all-time?

TH: Yeah, he's the best. Sir Alex was a genius in his own right, but he coached in a much easier league with way less tactical variation. Sure, he had to contend with Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti at various points, but the rest of the division was a bit meh.

Pep has put in the hard yards. It is worth pointing out, though, that Pep was handed pretty much unlimited resources. And yes, he worked wonders with them. But he did have every wish granted. No one else has had that luxury. If, say, Jurgen Klopp, had been handed that level of player from day one, this might be a different conversation.

RT: It's really tough to look past Sir Alex, but the fact that it is a discussion says everything you need to know. Pep is up there on the Mt. Rushmore, at the very least, which really is something considering how steady that Mt. Rushmore felt before he arrived. "Greatest" is a matter of perspective, and you could easily have a point of view that gives him that title. That is an achievement on its own.

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Was Jurgen Klopp Pep's best ever rival?

TH: Oh yeah. The thing with Klopp and Pep is that both always tried to play football against each other, no matter what. Klopp attacked. Pep attacked back. Those games, from about 2017 to 2024, were about as good as football gets. The Jose Mourinho stuff at Real Madrid was excellent content, but that was a different kind of warfare. For quality of soccer, this is the pinnacle.

RT: On the field? Far and away. We'll likely never see duels like that again. For multiple years, two well-oiled machines traded blows at the highest of levels, pushing each other in ways that, ultimately, led to insane stress and burnout for both managers involved. Off the field? Man, those Guardiola-Mourinho battles in El Clasico were legendary in La Liga. Take your pick on either of those two.