At the end of a long, gruelling season I can’t be alone in hearing voices. Most loudly, in my head, I hear the voices of the uplifting interviews which marked the culmination of this interminable, unique 11-month slog.
I hear Pep Guardiola’s, for example. In the week leading up to Manchester City‘s treble-clinching win in Istanbul I asked him whether, given the horrible reverses he’d suffered as player and coach he’d ever “grown to hate” the Champions League.
I thought of him losing 4-0 in the 1994 final in Athens, as a Barcelona player, to Fabio Capello’s AC Milan. The brutal semifinal elimination as Barcelona’s coach to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan in 2010 — forced to wearily travel to Milan by bus because Icelandic volcano ash had shut down European airspace. All the previous, painful “close-but-no-cigar” moments with Manchester City. He smiled, and rebutted my idea. Firmly.
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“No, no, it’s given me more… I look at it from a different angle,” he said. “It’s been 12 or 13 years, I’ve reached 10 Champions League semifinals, I’ve played three finals, winning two, and now I’m going to be in my fourth. It’s given me more than I could have ever expected.
“If my life were to end now, I’d have won one as a player in my club [Barca], which I love so much, as well as winning two as my club’s manager. Football provides and takes away from you. You have to be ambitious but not too greedy.
“This competition has given me very, very sad moments which hurt me, which will always be in my mind, but it also gave me extremely beautiful moments, which will also always be in my mind.”
I liked that conversation. I savoured that answer. His voice is in my head.
