My meeting with Pep Guardiola

There's been a relationship for many years with Pep. And we decided to get together last week in General Pacheco, at Joan Patsy's house. It's a quiet place, away from Buenos Aires, where you can relax. There's a golf course and it's nice, especially for resting, because before Spain-Argentina that wouldn't have been possible for him in the capital. We ate some great prawns, some empanadas, delicious salmon with a sauce... I don't know who cooked it, but it was fantastic. And we drunk wine. A good wine. Pep chose it. 

We got together to continue learning alongside each other. It's a pleasure to spend time with someone so committed to playing good football. It makes me happy. We had a good time and he's doing great, with bags of energy, always active in the challenges he has. Pep is a cultured man, too, and we were able to chat about Buenos Aires, as well as football, in England and in Argentina. We chatted about everything. It was a cordial conversation. 

I think that Pep is the Che Guevara of football. I always said that a revolutionary wins or dies in the fight and Pep's idea remains unwavering. He's never going to change it: he wants to play well, he wants to own the space and he wants command of the ball. And he wants to handle the time, to stay ahead of the curve. He's a coach with a clear image and he's been revolutionary in the fact that he's even been copied in Italy. Since the success of Barcelona, the idea of the líbero and the ‘stopper’ has changed. That was achieved with Pep's success with Barça, which was backed up with Bayern Munich and is now being even further enhanced with Manchester City. That's why I say he's the Che Guevara. Win or die. It's incredible that a coach wins in Catalonia, in Spain, is champions in Germany and then wins again in England. 

Now, he's very focused on what's going on in England. We didn't speak much about individual players because he's worried about the amount of games there are, that City have to play an extra cup in England, worried about how his players will arrive to the big games coming up. He worries that they could be distracted for what's to come. What it is, is that he's in a small city and that demands more work every day. 

In England, it's cost him to install his style of play. He's an excellent communicator and he's always working. He's committed to his ideas, but also to working on the ideas. And he teaches them for hours and hours. The players have responded. The most important thing for a coach is to see a response through the growth of their players. And there's De Bruyne. He's a machine now. That's the best quality of a coach. He's made the Belgian into an excellent player and that's to his merit. 

Every time we get together, I see how passionate he is. We're both similar because we ask lots of questions, but sometimes we can't find the answer. One of the problems with staying ahead of the curve: if I accelerate, I could go too far ahead and they'll kill me; but if I put the brakes, I will be overtaken. It's the team that has to sustain that. Thats where we agree that Messi is a genius because he's a player that can manage all that. Look at what he's learned. First of all, he was key in the final third, then he began to take more control of his team, then he became a creator. There are always those that assist but score few goals. And those that score goals, but don't create many. Messi does both. He was lucky to be created more in Barcelona than in Argentina, surrounded by committed, serious players who don't talk rubbish. Like Pique, Busquets, Iniesta, Xavi... 

Chatting with Pep is always enjoyable.