After the end of the national team matchday, the five major leagues in Europe will resume. City will be away to Burnley in this round, and at the pre-match press conference, Guardiola was asked about Tenhag, the favourite target for Manchester United's new boss. In response to the question, he gave the former colleague a very high evaluation, and once again showed high emotional intelligence.
When asked if Tenhag could become Manchester City manager? Guardiola replied in the affirmative: "Tenhag will definitely be at Manchester City in the future, a lot of people may be here, and from the way he plays, he is definitely one of them, absolutely, I will go and talk to Bergiristan about it now!" [Laughs]"
Guardiola then introduced Tenhag's coaching style, but also said that it was challenging to continue this style in the Premier League. "It's a challenge and something I've been trying to do in charge of Barca, Bayern and Manchester City, and I want to prove that I can play this style of football in different countries. In terms of strength, looking at his team and evaluating a coach's abilities requires looking at his team for a long time, it's a really good team, and coaches always get players to perform well, there's no doubt about that. ”
The above remarks are Guardiola's affirmation of Tenhag, who also said that he would call Manchester United to recommend Tenhag. But then he also expressed concern about Tenhag's coaching prospects, and the few short sentences directly poked at the fundamental problem of Manchester United's nearly 10 years of revival.
"If I had the situation, I would have been 100 per cent sure I would have called United and said, 'You have to sign him', but nobody knows what it's like and they've had a lot of great coaches in the past. Since Sir Alex Ferguson's departure, you can't say that Moyes is not a suitable manager, nor that Louis van Gaal or Jose Mourinho is not a good fit, all the managers at Manchester United are excellent. ”
I have to admit that Guardiola's recent interview with the media is like an open hanging, the speech is not leaky, not only can accurately express his meaning and position, but also will not make the other party uncomfortable. What is even more rare is that Guardiola sees the problem very clearly.
Tenhag is a future new manager for Manchester City's sworn enemy. But Guardiola generously affirmed United's vision and picked a good coach. Thinking that Tenhag is fully capable of coaching at Manchester City and leading Manchester City to play football similar to his own style has undoubtedly elevated Tenhag to the height of a world-class manager. But then the words turned sharply, and the subtext undoubtedly said: "Is the problem with Manchester United really the manager?" ”
Indeed, Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Mourinho have all proved themselves before joining United. Although Moyes has no coaching experience with the giants, he has shown his abilities well at Everton. He led the team to 7th place in the league in his first season, for which he was awarded the Coach of the Year award from the English Football Coaches Association.
In the following 10 years, he has received this honor twice. Under Moyes' leadership, Everton have repeatedly pushed their city rival Liverpool to a higher league ranking. He was also seen by Sir Alex Ferguson as the ideal successor, and United subsequently offered him a six-year contract. But he was fired in less than a season, and Moyes is still angry about it today.
Not to mention Louis van Gaal and Mourinho, both of whom are famous coaches in the world, have already proved themselves in the giants and are famous. In particular, the latter, in the previous clubs have led the team to win the championship, the proper champion manager.
But we can find that after these managers left, almost all of them shelled the management of Manchester United. Complaining that they don't get the players they want, but forcing themselves into the players they don't want. Although Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's level of coaching is not as good as that of several other predecessors, it is an indisputable fact that United have steadily improved under him. From 3rd to 2nd in the season, Manchester United have been narrowing the gap with Manchester City step by step. But after last year's summer window, Manchester United not only did not go further, but the system collapsed, the record collapsed, and the players who had performed well before were almost invariably depressed.
In fact, there have been people who have talked about similar topics more than once, is Manchester United's problem really in the manager? Tenhag is certainly a good manager and has proven himself to be able to lead the team to beautiful football at Ajax. But when negotiating with The United hierarchy, he wanted to figure out the team's squad building plan and signing budget, which shows that he sees similar concerns like Guardiola.