What is eating away at Pep Guardiola right now? Maybe, just maybe, the Manchester City manager senses that his era of dominance faces a new threat that is largely of his own creation.
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On one flank, he has Mikel Arteta and Arsenal attempting to claim City’s crown as Premier League champions — the two teams meet for the first time this season in Friday’s FA Cup fourth-round tie (3 p.m. ET, stream live on ESPN+, US Only) at the Etihad — and closer to home, Guardiola can see Erik ten Hag breathing new life into Manchester United to the extent that City’s neighbours may finally, after 10 years in the doldrums, be ready to compete for the biggest trophies again.
Ten Hag coached Bayern Munich‘s second team under Guardiola between 2013-15, while Arteta was his assistant manager at City between 2016-19. They are his proteges, now in charge of Premier League giants and both possessing a Guardiola-like focus and belief that they will soon be at the top, with Pep merely an obstacle that is blocking their path.
Like Guardiola with the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Joe Hart and Sergio Aguero, both coaches have both displayed a readiness to be ruthless in dropping or moving on players who don’t fit their requirements. Arteta disposed of Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, while Ten Hag quickly made it clear to Cristiano Ronaldo that it was his way or the highway at United — all the way to Saudi Arabia for the former Real Madrid forward.
Arteta and Ten Hag have seen Guardiola at close quarters, watched him coach and organise, heard him plot revolutionary tactical ideas and, perhaps most importantly, witnessed how he demands and imposes full control of the players at his disposal.
So it’s clear that Guardiola now has two serious rivals to contend with, and what potentially makes them more dangerous than those who have gone before is the fact that both have learned from the master himself. He may have inadvertently groomed the coaches most likely to steal his crown.
Since starting out in management with Barcelona in 2008, Guardiola has faced and overcome some formidable managerial rivals. From winning the Champions League in his first season, denying Sir Alex Ferguson the chance to win back-to-back European Cups (and his third as a manager) at United, Guardiola has won every personal battle with a rival coach.
He emerged from his tempestuous rivalry with Jose Mourinho in Spain as the man with most trophies at a time when Barcelona and Mourinho’s Real were arguably the two best teams in the world.
And with Bayern Munich and City, Guardiola has engaged in a decade-long duel with Jurgen Klopp, first at Borussia Dortmund and then with Liverpool, and been forced to watch the German beat him to some of the biggest trophies. But if you look at the honours’ list of the two men since their rivalry began in 2013, it is 16-7 in Guardiola’s favour, so there is only one winner in that contest.
