‘I don’t want to be remembered’: Pep Guardiola on Man City, his legacy and Ange

There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be up there in the title race, snapping back into contention like a rubber band. Though it will be different without the great Kevin De Bruyne, they have retooled on the transfer market, splashing out more than $320 million on the likes of French international Rayan Cherki and Dutch midfielder Tijjani Reijnders. But their rivals have spent big, too, as Guardiola gleefully (and slightly combatively) points out.

“Finally, it’s not [only] Man City spending money, right?” he says. “It’s good. It’s normal. That is what’s allowed.”

This is the beginning of the end for Guardiola, at least at this club. He signed a new two-year contract in November, which keeps him tied to City through to the 2026-27 season, and says it will be his last one with them. It wouldn’t be surprising, should they win the title this season, if he walks off into the sunset a year early.

There were times last season when the pressures of top-level management had him in a permanent state of what kids these days call ‘headloss’. As the defeats piled up, so too did genuine concern for Guardiola’s mental well-being. After blowing a 3-0 lead over Feyenoord in the UEFA Champions League, he presented to his post-match interviews with scratches on his face, some of which had drawn blood, and joked that it was self-harm. He struggled to sleep or digest food properly, and spoke about his struggles with stress, anxiety and loneliness – a timely reminder that beneath the brilliance, he’s still just another human.

But Guardiola seems to have successfully recharged his batteries. His off-season break was short because of the FIFA Club World Cup, where City were knocked out in the round of 16 by Saudi club Al Hilal – although he believes the “foundation” for future success was laid at that tournament.

“After that, I went to Barcelona with my family,” he says. “And basically I eat, drink, and slept. That’s what I’ve done. And I came [back] with four or five kilos more. I try to make a diet, reduce my kilos. That is our plan.”

In a long interview with GQ earlier this month, timed to promote a clinic he has opened with a therapist in Barcelona that specialises in “longevity and personalised medicine”, Guardiola confirmed his intention to take a break from football when he’s done with City, of anywhere between one to 15 years, to focus on himself for once.

The grind of modern-day coaching is proving relentless to the point where the big dogs risk total burnout unless they take a longer sabbatical at some point. Ange Postecoglou is living his best life in Greece, eating prime steak off the knives of TikTok celebrity chefs, making the most of his first substantial period of downtime in over a decade. An exhausted Jurgen Klopp acknowledged that he was “running out of energy” – so he stepped down as Liverpool boss last year and travelled the world on a cruise ship, washing up in Adelaide of all places.

That’s something Guardiola would like to do, but he’s more of a Melbourne guy.

“I’ve been in Melbourne years ago with my family for five days, six days. And I would love it,” he says. “Maybe Australian Open ... I would travel a lot, I’m pretty sure of that. And I would love to spend not just a few days, [but] a month. That’s what I mean I take care of myself. I would take care of my body, but my mind ... to travel to places I’ve not been. That is the way, right? Everyone in the sofa at home, watching Instagram – it doesn’t make you better.”

Perhaps there’ll be time then, when he’s not working, for a quiet beer with Postecoglou, a sort of kindred spirit, someone Guardiola once described as a person who “makes football a better place” – high praise, from one of the highest imaginable sources.

Guardiola is famously effusive in his compliments for rival managers, but he does not seem to be laying it on thick when it comes to the former Tottenham Hotspur coach, whose commitment to attacking football and deft handling of the media he admires greatly. He said the two of them had exchanged messages about catching up over dinner and a bottle of good red wine from Australia.

“The way he plays, alongside the amount of titles he won ... always try to attack, always be positive,” he says.

“When you find two teams that want to score goals and attack, it’s a beautiful game. I’m pretty sure that the new generation of managers, they are more courageous. Before, they said, ‘Oh, we’re going to play against [Sergio] Agüero, Man City. I’m going to defend, defend.’ Now, no, it doesn’t matter. ‘I don’t care. I go to try to win.’ And when this happens, football is nice. And I think always his teams have [had] that courage to do it.”

Guardiola stopped short of weighing in on Spurs’ decision to sack Postecoglou, but suggested he wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up back in the Premier League with another club.

“What happened in Spurs, the injuries they had and the situation, I don’t know, because I’ve not been there,” he says.

“At the end, OK, it was not a good season, I would say. Right? But at the end, they won [their first] silverware for many, many, years. And maybe that helps to break that barrier that is not winning the title. Maybe it will help in the future for Spurs, mentally-wise, for everyone. I’m pretty sure he leaves something for the club, for the players, for the future ... a big legacy.”

That word – legacy – comes up a lot when people talk about Guardiola. After more two decades of bending football to his will, his legacy will be the stuff of history books. So how does he feel about the way he has inspired a generation of coaches around the world, Postecoglou included, with the magical teams he has put together?

Surprisingly blasé.

He says he doesn’t really care if people consider him a genius, or if cynics say that he’s mainly successful because of the money he’s been able to spend and the calibre of players at his disposal. He is “more than grateful” for what the game has allowed him to experience – and he still wants more, or else he wouldn’t be there – but he does not seem to think his work will live on in any meaningful way.

“I don’t care. Don’t remember me,” Guardiola says.

“Because when we die, when I am out of football, after one, two, three days, I will be forgotten. In our life, our familiars, [when] they pass away, we are so sad. [But after] one day, two days, three days, one week ... [we] have good memories, we smile, and we continue. We live. Football is the same. I’m here, I will remember that we managed Man City – but I leave, it’s over. It’s gone. Another [coach] is coming. And I’m over. Everyone is replaceable.

“So, the people saying, I want a [legacy] for the history: bullshit. I want to live my history. I want to be happy living. I don’t want to be remembered, in good and bad. So if people say nice things, it’s fine. People don’t say, it’s fine too.”

Guardiola insists he is a “much, much better” manager today than he was in 2009, when he guided Barcelona to a then-unprecedented sextuple of trophies. He has collected more than 40 major titles throughout his career, but that is not how he defines himself or where he derives his happiness from. Accolades aren’t what make him feel special; the same ideas, work ethic and methods that delivered those successes were there last season, when nothing was won.

“My curriculum vitae is so good,” he says.

“I was so happy doing that. But it [hasn’t] changed me. Still, I have fear to lose a game. I don’t pay my attention for the compliments ... there are many reasons, not just me. I’ve been at three huge clubs. Huge: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Man City. Good resources in the academies and the money spending to buy incredible top players, incredible top facilities. I put [the credit for] that with everyone.”

What matters to Guardiola is seeing his team improve - a training session that clicks, a tactical tweak that works, the gradual progress from one match to the next. The process of pursuing excellence together, and the memories made along the way.

“That motivates me. That is my job. This is what I like,” he says.

“When I remember all the incredible players that we had for many, many years, always I remember their huge smile. The memories that belong to us, that we have with us, will stay forever. It has been so nice. Even the bad moments – the disappointments in the last minutes or the titles that we didn’t win for many reasons - always belong to us.”

Trophies, he says, are fleeting, and their absence doesn’t diminish the work.

“If we win, incredible. If we don’t, we try again. [If] the boss will say, ‘You don’t win? I sack you.’ OK, it’s fine. We’ll find another job, maybe. Or maybe not,” he says. “I want to live my life, and be satisfied as much as possible. And the rest, believe me, is not important.”

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