Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola had often attributed his success to former Barcelona manager Johan Cruyff. The Dutch manager had made a name for himself for transforming Barcelona into a European giant during his days at the club in the 1990s.
Guardiola, who had won 14 titles with Barcelona in his four years at Camp Nou, has revealed that if Cryuff had met Lionel Messi in the dressing room, there would have had lot of conflicts between them.
“Surely there would have been a conflict between them,” he said on an event hosted by I Acto de Homenaje Amigos de Johan.
“[It would be] a conflict that we would have experienced for a while, but then they would have found each other, because the two are very intelligent.
“With Johan managing as coach and the abilities of Messi they would have won [many things] for sure.”
The Argentine is arguably the greatest player of all time as the records speak for him. Pep Guardiola brought Messi into the limelight under his managerial time at Barca, as his introduction of Messi as false Nine in 2009 El Clasico at Bernabeu is considered one of the major turning points in Messi’s career.
Meanwhile, Cruyff is considered as greatest European player of 20th century and had introduced the philosophy of “total football” in Netherlands football which helped them reach both 1974, 1978 World Cup finals. His principles are widely followed in all Dutch academies and also at Barcelona.
Pep Guardiola has also revealed that he tried to use the methods of Johan Cruyff to solve the issues during the games as the Catalan had also touted Cruyff as his idol in becoming a manager.
“When I have some problems with a player, the media or my technical team, I think what he would have done,” he noted.
“It’s impossible to guess, but I like to play that game, because he was the only one to solve that kind of things.”
Pep Guardiola have had a decent start to his life in Premier League as he is currently in process of making a devastating side that would challenge for Premier League next season. The Citizens were a class apart in the country last season, despite not having any trophies to show for their football.