The Big Drog

To say Zhirkov had a lot of pace is a bit of an exaggeration, definitely two very different players, Marin had much more about him in an attacking sense.

No I'm not hyping him as Superman, simply as a football visionary and the greatest coach in thr history of Barcelona. It's easy to look back now and say he inherited the best team ever, the reality was very different. He took over a team that had just been beaten over 2 legs by Man Utd, a side split into two camps by the Eto'o/Ronaldinho feud and while it did contain the likes of Xavi, Iniesta and Puyol, those players were considered underachievers at both club and international level and were not (with the exception of Puyol) considered the world beaters that they are today. Guardiola went in there, ended the feud and got rid of some big names who were causing problems, united the dressing room and created a system and perfected a philosophy that made this Barcelobaxside the greatest team to ever play the game. Listen to Messi speak about Guardiola, hear how much he says he owes to Guardiola in making him the player that he is today. No other manager could have commanded the kind of respect that Guardiola did in that Barcelona dressing room, he was the boyhood hero of Xavi, Iniesta and Fabregas. As I say the argument that he doesn't have a plan B isn't correct, what you mean is that he didn't have a target man but when plan A is so successful, plan B would simply be a hindrance, after all what world class target man would be content with sitting on the bench, only getting a chance to play on the off chance that Barcelona struggle against Inter or Chelsea in Europe. As has already been well documented and previously stated in this thread, he never intended on staying long anyway, his stay lasted longer than he originally intended.

Ancelotti is not nor was ever meant to be a visionary, just a coach. AVB was supposed to be a visionary but he was hindered by both the squad being incapable of adapting to his style of play and his destructive relationships with some of the older players. With the players we are bringing in, a change of style shouldn't be as difficult this time around while Guardiola is experienced enough not to make the same mistakes as AVB.

No I dont. Absolutely that helps, though by the same token you could certainly compliment him on promoting a raft of youth team players to the first team squad. While those who came through the Barcelona system obviously learned to play the Barcelona way, what you dont mention is the massive impact Guardiola has had on that Barcelona way and how he has tweaked it into the most dominating style of football anyone has ever seen. The actual Barcelona way was developed before 10-15 years, it's generally credited to Johann Cruyff who brought a total football element to Barcelona, which Guardiola then worked off to create the most successful side in the club's history. Who expects him to change things overnight? Give him time and he will change things. Roman Abramovich is said to be a huge fan of the Barcelona way and the work Pep did at the club, he would certainly have the backing to change things. What other manager at Chelsea would have had both that power to change the entire structure of the club and also the ability to perform such a change? Perhaps but given just how long he has admired Guardiola for, Id be fairly confident that he would last a little longer than 6 months.

For the job that Abramovich wants done I do think Guardiola is the absolute best around to implement it, that isn't ruling anyone out. Were Di Matteo to be appointed in the morning Id be more than happy, Im not on an anti-Di Matteo campaign here, Im simply giving reasons why I think Guardiola is a good appointment and why Abramovich probably thinks so too. Funnily enough I actually prefer Real Madrid, I just respect what Barcelona and Guardiola has done.

Im not saying you have to like them but there is no escaping what Guardiola brought to Barcelona and football and, in that respect, you absolutely must acknowledge them.

Im not saying parking the bus isn't an art, of course good defending should be appreciating and defending is every bit as much a part of the game as attacking. Barcelona come up against it very often, teams with 9, sometimes even 10 men behind the ball, both domestically and in Europe, for the most part they succeed in breaking it down. His record against Mourinho's Madrid is excellent.

Just read the article on Sky Sports.com and it sounds very promising, Sky Sports are a good, reliable source and it actually sounds like we are going to get him. This would be a terrific signing, he's a match winner, he's a game changer, he's built for the Premier League, he is a marquee name and he will bring something very special to the Chelsea team, in today's market, 38 million pounds is reasonable for a player of his immense talent. If you want to be the best you have to get the best and Hulk is one of the best around and at 25 years of age should just be coming into his prime years, this would be a spectacular signing.

Lol that name mix up did make me laugh.

No, you couldn't manage Barcelona, the people who say this either have watched Barcelona a handful of times or simply don't understand football. Anyone with an appreciation of football or is a regular viewer of La Liga will fully appreciate everything Guardiola brought to, not only Barcelona, but football in general.

Please point out where, in any post I've made on the forum, I ruled Di Matteo out of contention for the Chelsea job, good luck finding such a quote, it doesn't exist. I am simply saying I would support Guardiola were he to be appointed, why I think Abramovich would hire him, his many merits and the supreme quality of Andrrson Silva, that is all I'm discussing here.

Well when he has to play either Fabregas or Iniesta left wing it does minimize their impact and the overall attacking threat of the team and neither is likely to grab the 25+ goals that Villa guarantees. We don't know that he won't stay long term and I'd gladly accept a 4/5 year stint of Guardiola as manager. Ye White isn't Silva's biggest fan but even he admits that he is the pound for pound greatest fighter on the planet so all in all, Let's go Silva!

You do know that more often than not his Barcelona side beat the bus? If they didn't they wouldn't have win the trophies they did considering the majority of sides parked the bus against Barcelona.

There's only so much he can do. David Villa was a vital outlet for Barcelona and offered something different to Fabregas and Iniesta but an injury wrecked his season, Pep can't predict things like that and that robbed Barca of a vital goal outlet who takes the pressure off Messi. Pedro was also a key player who offers genuine width but Guardiola never could have predicted his lack of form this season. He had said numerous times that he didn't plan on sticking around for long, in fact the general thought is that he stuck around longer than he had anticipated when he first took over as head coach. This is why he had those 1 year rolling contracts. Lol I fully expect another stunning, highlight reel KO from The Spider, the man is surely the closest thing this generation has seen to Muhhamed Ali.

The fight starts on the feet and thee is no finer striker than Silva and this time he won't have cracked ribs hindering him, Sonnen won't get close enough to take hin down, 2nd round KO

Tbf he congratulated us after the game just as Barcelona were one of the first to congratulate us on beating Bayern. If you want to base your entire opinion of Guardiola on random sound bites then go ahead but you will end up with a false perception of him.

Btw off topic but I feel compelled to reply because I originally brought it up. In their last fight Silva had broken ribs and Sonnen tested positive for having too much testisterone in his system and Silva still won the bloody fight. Sonnen is a terrific talker, very amusing but Silva will prove Sonnen isn't in his league.

Oh come on, are we seriously not going to have a sense of humour? Bloody hell, anyone can see that is just a witty sound bite, nothing more in it and anyway the whole reason behind getting Pep would be to deploy a style of football that is the opposite of parking the bus.

See, talented and witty

I'm trying to spell this out as simply as I can. It clearly in failing because you seem to be missing each of my points. My point of using Federer, Woods and Silva as examples was to prove that even the greats of their respective games aren't perfect, nobody is (Anderson Silva is still the best). New example, take Novak Djokovic, he is the best tennis player in the world right now but he doesn't win every single tournament he plays in but he wins enough and in impressive enough fashion against the best players in the world to prove that he is currently the best player in the world. Simply replace Novak with Pep, best players in the world with best clubs in the world and you get why I consider him the best manager in the world. No disrespect to Di Matteo because he got the absolute best out of an I fancied group of players but to say he masterminded the victory is a bit strong, I think the players had something to do with it too. One of my main points is that Guardiola is proven to be able to implement fluid systems that encourage attacking football, on top of his excellent work in promoting youth players. It's not a matter of Di Matteo not being good enough it's a matter of Guardiola being better suited to tackle the task at hand.

I had just written a massive block of text on a mobile phone, to go into depth on why Guardiola is so much superior to Rijjaard would have destroyed my fingers. Though I do enjoy your witty pictures.

No, the comment simply wasn't worth arguing.

No.

Come on Shane, you know that wint happen, Silva is undoubtedly the pound for pound greatest MMA fighter ever. No, if the club are content with their current regime then they won't sack their manager. However we don't have a manager and if Abramovich was completely happy with Di Matteo then he would be the manager already on a long term contract. Barcelona's style and philosophy was such that the "big man" option was never that important m, when they did have Ibrahimovic (a genuinely world class target man) he didn't have the impact expected. To say he didn't have a plan B us extremely harsh when you consider the amount of formations he employed during his time as head coach and his tinkering of roles and positions (Messi, Fabregas, Sanchez to name 3). That's ridculous. You could name any side winning a major trophy and find a handful on contentious decisions. The easiest job in the world? I've wrote about how that is completely false before and I will get back to you in that in a separate comment. At Chelsea, ability in the transfer market isn't that important. After all we have secured a deal for Hazard and are closing in on Hulk despite not having a manager, Torres too is another Roman signing. Also Sanchez has been fairly successful and has added something different to Barcelona. Ibrahimovic was the plan B that you wanted. Fabregas is only a season in and had a terrific first half of the season and Guardiola's deployment of him was creative. Ad delay was injured all season, nothing Pep can do about that, he is a very promising talent and he was bought at a cheap price. He signed AVB, the closest thing you could get to Guardiola short of the man himself or raising Barcelona's coaches. He yearns for beautiful football and it's no secret that he wants the first team and youth teams to play in a Barcelona type way, I feel pretty safe saying the Guardiola is Abramovich's dream manager.

I don't think anyone believes he will instantly turn us into Barcelona but that the argument for him is that there is no better manager to implement the football that Abramovich wants than Guardiola. Also what if we hire Di Matteo or Capello and the start to waver, the figure of Guardiola looms large in Abramovich's mind, no matter what any manager at Cheksea does, to Roman, Pep could do it but do it even better. He is clearly Roman's ideal manager and has been for years.