Unai Emery

[Sexual Ealing]

I'm not a fan of Guardiola, but he's not the mothership of everything I hate about football.

[Brend'Watkins]

There’s zero point in having a Manager of the season award if the accolade automatically goes to the manager of the league champions

Yes, it's just lazy. It is nice to read good stuff about Emery though as much as any of the journo's opinions count. I read further into the article, 'Goal of the Season' ...not one mention of McGinn's V Arsenal! Further proof of laziness and renders the article as meaningless.

[john e]

If Guardiola had gone to Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool they would be where Man City are now
That’s how good he is

Like Emery, whatever team he manages he would make better, but given teams with financial clout he makes the best

People moan about his football but it’s not dissimilar to Emery’s, possession based, highline, every player knowing exactly what his job is, obsessive workload, highly driven and of course OTT in demanding more

[Pat Mustard]

If Guardiola had gone to Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool they would be where Man City are now
That’s how good he is

Like Emery, whatever team he manages he would make better, but given teams with financial clout he makes the best

People moan about his football but it’s not dissimilar to Emery’s, possession based, highline, every player knowing exactly what his job is, obsessive workload, highly driven and of course OTT in demanding more

For me this is the key thing though - he could get teams with their finances to that level, but send him to somewhere like Small Heath, for instance, and I doubt he could do anything.  The players available to him have to be at a certain level for him to get anything from them (and even then there are numerous examples like Joe and Kalvin Phillips who have gone backwards under his guidance), whereas put Unai in charge of any team at any level and he could get a tune out of them.  I don't care what anyone says, there is no way that Guardiola could have achieved with Villa what Emery has.

[RamboandBruno]

If Guardiola had gone to Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool they would be where Man City are now
That’s how good he is

Like Emery, whatever team he manages he would make better, but given teams with financial clout he makes the best

People moan about his football but it’s not dissimilar to Emery’s, possession based, highline, every player knowing exactly what his job is, obsessive workload, highly driven and of course OTT in demanding more

Not Bayern got that much better to be honest

[Drummond]

If Guardiola had gone to Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool they would be where Man City are now
That’s how good he is

Like Emery, whatever team he manages he would make better, but given teams with financial clout he makes the best

People moan about his football but it’s not dissimilar to Emery’s, possession based, highline, every player knowing exactly what his job is, obsessive workload, highly driven and of course OTT in demanding more

For me this is the key thing though - he could get teams with their finances to that level, but send him to somewhere like Small Heath, for instance, and I doubt he could do anything.  The players available to him have to be at a certain level for him to get anything from them (and even then there are numerous examples like Joe and Kalvin Phillips who have gone backwards under his guidance), whereas put Unai in charge of any team at any level and he could get a tune out of them.  I don't care what anyone says, there is no way that Guardiola could have achieved with Villa what Emery has.

Yes.

[john e]

If Guardiola had gone to Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool they would be where Man City are now
That’s how good he is

Like Emery, whatever team he manages he would make better, but given teams with financial clout he makes the best

People moan about his football but it’s not dissimilar to Emery’s, possession based, highline, every player knowing exactly what his job is, obsessive workload, highly driven and of course OTT in demanding more

For me this is the key thing though - he could get teams with their finances to that level, but send him to somewhere like Small Heath, for instance, and I doubt he could do anything.  The players available to him have to be at a certain level for him to get anything from them (and even then there are numerous examples like Joe and Kalvin Phillips who have gone backwards under his guidance), whereas put Unai in charge of any team at any level and he could get a tune out of them.  I don't care what anyone says, there is no way that Guardiola could have achieved with Villa what Emery has.

He’d make blues better though
Would blues boss do what pep has done with the resources

No, that’s the difference

[Dave]

If Guardiola had gone to Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool they would be where Man City are now
That’s how good he is

There's also the question about whether individual success as a manager is just judged by a list of how many trophies you've won.

Because if so, Guardiola will inevitably be "more successful" than Ferguson as in the next 10-15 years he'll win the eleven trophies that he needs to overtake him on that list. Partly because he's very good and partly because he only manages teams that are good enough to win trophies anyway.

But if it's not just a case of adding up trophies, then it's a case of what other factors are being looked at. Is Guardiola "not as good" because he had all the money? Or because he usually inherited a team that was winning anyway? Is it more impressive for Emery to take Villa to fourth than it is for Guardiola to win the league (of course it is), so is he "more successful" in what he's achieved (probably not)?

Personally I think the biggest factor is what impact you leave on the game. And for the last ten years, pretty much every youth team across the world has been using the ideas that Guardiola has helped develop. For better or worse, Guardiola has pretty much changed how people play, and learn how to play football. If you're a manager trying to assess your achievements, that's probably more impressive than a couple of extra League Cups.

[Brend'Watkins]

If Guardiola had gone to Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool they would be where Man City are now

We can't know that for sure.  He's a great manager where there's an embarrassment of riches at his behest.  No other manager in the Prem has that. Would Klopp have done better with this Man City squad? The football would have been better to watch, I'm certain of that and he'd be as effective, as would Emery.

We beat them 1-0 and deservedly so. The reason, we played exceptionally well and they didn't have Rodri. They don't have an adequate replacement for him.

 

[PeterWithesShin]

Guardiola is obviously very good but he's at a doped club that was already winning titles and cups before him, and will win them after him.

Man U had a few FA Cups in 20 years before Ferguson, hoovered up a shit load of titles and cups under him, and in the decade after him they went back to a decent cup side and not much more.

I think Ferguson was more impressive, others will think Guardiola.

[Sexual Ealing]

At least Guardiola doesn't force people to wear blazers, break up parties and coerce young players into getting married.

[dr.chekov]

At least Ferguson didn’t say ‘that man talks too much’ in response to Roberto Carlos complaining he was racially abused by Barcelona fans.

[Sexual Ealing]

I'd refer you back to the blazers.

[dr.chekov]

Ha!

[purpletrousers]

I think Dave is correct, that Pep overall impact on the game thing is indeed big, and to be fair it wasn’t a procession of who wins the league gets manager of the year, it was always like it to be Arteta for breaking the stranglehold OR Guardiola for breaking records with a 4th straight.

What grated on the bit of MOTD I saw about it not being fair there is a shadow over him and the Man City players, which might be fair enough to a certain extent (or might not), is there was no parallel acknowledgment of it being unfair on rivals if there was found to be financial doping.

The argument to spend what you want is another issue; but if rules as they stand are broken, the platform (largely) on which he built was elevated.

The very least we want in sport is a level playing field, the rules have pulled the drawbridge up to an unfair degree, hence the line in that f365 article

It is an astounding accomplishment which feels somewhat overlooked purely because Villa spent so long in the top four this season that it became normalised; people simply got used to their overachievement. Yet their consistency in breaking the glass ceiling and replacing the floor beneath them has been more impressive than if a late surge had secured the spot.

Hence so many pundits see Emery’s transformation of Villa as even more significant.