ESPN Brasil today features an exclusive interview with Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.
Speaking to reporter Natalie Gedra, the coach had a long chat about his relationship with players in his career, and the influence that has when it comes to building a team.
“Throughout the seasons, relationships with players always leave scars, but they also leave a lot of learning,” Pep Guardiola told ESPN Brasil.
“You learn everything. But the relationship between the coach and the players depends on the players, not the coaches. There are players who deserve to have a very close relationship and others deserve to have a more distant relationship.”
“See, football is a business, it’s a business, which consists of, on the day the referee whistles and starts the match, you win the matches. Other than that, if we are friends, or less friends, it doesn’t matter.
“Football is a business. And here I am, whose goal it is to get the best out of the players, the players have to play well for the benefit of our club and for our fans to be happy. If in the middle of it all you can have some good relationships, it’s fantastic. For me, whether it’s good or bad, it’s the same thing, because this is a business.”
Guardiola claimed that instead of a good relationship with him, the best thing players can do to get a chance in the team is to continue performing well.
“I have to make decisions and they have to play well. If they play well, then they’re more likely to continue playing. Otherwise, they will not have (more chances). But the intention is always the best. The best for the team to win. And that, from my first day at Barcelona to my last day here will be the same.”
“At Barcelona, I had much closer relationships with some players than with others because there are many players who think about the common good, and I feel much closer to this type of player than to those who just think ‘me, me, me ‘. These, when we have to use them, we use them, and when we don’t have, we don’t use them.”
Guardiola also talked about his influence in the change of the Premier League’s playing style.
Even though he doesn’t want to be the one to judge it, the manager acknowledges he’s had some impact in the way English football is seen today.
“I don’t know that … History will be the judge. I think it would be presumptuous of me to say that we did something different than what was done before. You can say, yes, that we did things our way. That is safe to say. We did it our way.”
“It was very direct football, very box-to-box, with a lot of challenges, and we didn’t try to do any of that. That’s what I came here for. I felt the sensation after the second time we won Premier League that this was done, we already did it. We came here to do it and we did it. But when you feel good and believe in yourself and in what we do, you think: ‘Why don’t I try to take this further?”
Following the international break, Pep Guardiola and Manchester City now prepare for a trip to Leicester, where they face the Foxes at the King Power Stadium on Saturday, before having to switch their attention to the Champions League, as the much anticipated first leg of the quarter-finals against Borussia Dortmund will be played on Tuesday.
