A
t 7pm on Sunday April 30, 1989, a ‘drunk’ 18-year-old went into
a disco on Gran Via Carles III, a tree-lined street north-west of
downtown Barcelona. He’d not touched a drop of alcohol, but two
things intoxicated the gangly teenager.
First was Barcelona’s 7-1 demolition of Real Oviedo he’d watched
that afternoon, a stone’s throw away at the Camp Nou. Second was
the brunette at the bar.
“As soon as the slow songs started, I would ask her for a dance,”
the youngster later recalled. “Then someone from La Masia came to
tell me that I had to travel to Banyoles with the first team. I could no
longer dance with the brunette. I now had my mind on other things.”
The next day, with many regulars rested ahead of the Cup Winners’
Cup final against Sampdoria a little over a week later, he lasted until
half-time of a 6-2 friendly victory. But manager Johan Cruyff was not
impressed. “You played slower than my grandmother,” was the Dutch
legend’s verdict. Pep Guardiola thought his Barcelona career was over
before it had even begun.
“I later learned Johan used that phrase as part of his motivational
strategy with everyone,” he explained in La Meva Gent, el Meu Futbol
(My People, My Football), his 2001 autobiography. “Cruyff used to pour
water on the fire when you were hot, and praise you when the press
were against you. If the same journalists dedicated successive reports
about you, Johan used to strangle you until you choked.”
A year after that inauspicious start, in the summer of 1990, Cruyff
needed a midfielder to replace the departing Luis Milla, someone to
direct play from deep. He dropped in on the B team keen to see Pep,
about whom scout Oriol Tort had claimed: “I’ve found someone who
plays like the gods.” He didn’t make it off the bench.
“He didn’t even warm up,” he shouted at the coach, Charly Rexach.
“Why not, if he’s the best?” Cruyff was told that Pep, though luxuriously
skilled with supreme vision, wasn’t particularly strong or dynamic. “A
good player doesn’t need a strong physique,” huffed Cruyff, who
immediately promoted Guardiola into his first-team squad.
In session after session, the pair worked on using as few touches
as possible until the manager had the pivote he desired. “Two feet,
you’ve got two f**king feet!” Cruyff frequently shouted.
“Those sessions were hard,” Guardiola said. “Cruyff used to ask me
what I was doing there, because I was doing things so badly. But the
explanation is simple. When you are older, it’s almost impossible to
improve any detail, no matter how small. Luckily, that hasn’t been my
case. I learned from very young under Cruyff. Constantly.”
Gradually, that skinny kid became the key piece of Cruyff’s Dream
Team, who won four La Liga titles on the spin and the 1992 European
Cup (Barça’s first) at the old Wembley.PEP GUARDIOLA
THE MAKING OF THE
SUPER GAFFERS
Words
Andrew Murray
Image
PA
From Barcelona’s Johan Cruyff disciple to a tortured Juve star, a German journeyman and
a La Liga enforcer, FFT looks back at the playing careers of four top Premier League bosses92 The Managers FourFourTwo.comMAnAGERS
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FEBRUARY 2018