You’ve spent more time with
Guardiola than anyone
outside his closest circle. What’s
he like?
There’s very little that is special
about him. He’s just very normal
and unassuming. As a coach,
he’s very famous, and some of
what you see publically is to
protect himself and his family. The
perception is that because he’s
such a great coach, there must be
something different to him, but
that’s not really the case. He’s
very humble and always deals
with problems personally. The
special quality he has is in how he
interprets football – he
understands it like no one else.Does he ever stop thinking
about the sport?
He does, but the majority of his
day-to-day life is dedicated to
football. He’s obsessive in the
sense that he constantly
applies theories and things he
reads to football in order to“HE’S OFTEn A SARCASTIC JOKER”
become better. His mentality is to
learn. He likes knowing new
things. It’s why he went from
Barcelona to New York, to Munich
and next, to England. He jokes
about only wanting to see the
restaurants, but it is all to learn.
He meets new people, learns
about new cultures and how
to then incorporate those cultures
into his coaching. That is why
he went to the concentration
camp at Dachau. It will be the
same case in England, too. He’s
a better coach now than before
he went to work in Germany
because of it.How does he deal with defeats?
They affect him more than other
coaches, because he so rarely
loses matches. He blamed himself
for the Champions League semi-
final defeat to Real Madrid in- He really hurt – it took him
days to get over it. He’s always
with his coaches
analysing the
‘why?’. He tries not to get too
carried away with victories,
nor too down after tough
defeats. There’s no
depression there.What is his sense of
humour like? Does he
have one?
He’s a real joker with his
players. At the beginning
they didn’t understand his
ways at Bayern. He can be
quite sarcastic and they
thought he was being
serious. He’s always
tapping players on the arse, or
giving them a playful slap around
the head. It shocked them a bit.
Pep’s really tactile, with hugs,
even kisses. He is very Latin in
that sense.Will the press be a problem?
He doesn’t give one-on-one
interviews, apart from obligatory
ones for rights holders, but you
can ask him anything at apress conference.
Sections of the
German press didn’t
warm to him, but
that’s life. You’ve got
four chances to speak
to him – before and
after matches,
assuming there are two
per week – and he will
talk without limits. He
loves talking about
football, his philosophy
and his team.How was your year living
so close to him?
I didn’t know him before Munich.
It was amazing to be
so close to such a brilliant
coach teaching a team a totally
new way. They’re masters at it
now. I had doubts at the
beginning, but Lahm, Robben and
Ribery want to learn. Trying to
figure out what Pep is trying to do
wasn’t easy for them – imagine
what it was like for me!Meet Marti Perarnau, the author who got up close and personal with Pep at Bayern
138 The Managers FourFourTwo.com
PEP
GUARDIOLA