Get the day's biggest United stories delivered straight to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Incoming Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola seems to make a big impression on the players he works with.

There's almost unanimous praise from those who have played under him at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, as well as from the wider football community.

His training methods, man-management style and tactical innovations leave a lasting impression.

Here are some of the best quotes from his former players.

Sergio Busquets

"I have always said there are just two people who could make me change my decision to stay at Barcelona.

"One of those two people is my wife. The other person is Guardiola.

"It's clear that I owe Pep a lot and I would be honoured to work with him again.

"He knows that Barcelona are my club and it's his club as well.

"He knows it's best for the club and for me to stay here and I don't think he will ask me to leave Barcelona.

"I hope that when I end my career, I go down in history as a great team player, who won titles and excelled. I want to become one of the players with the most games for Barcelona."

Dani Alves

"His secret is he gets you to see things differently. He is a football Einstein.

"For him it’s a change and that’s what he likes. Guardiola likes to move to places where he can make a revolution. I have no doubt that he is going to achieve it because he is a freak of football.

"[He will want] everything his way, and when you get to a place where they are going to allow that - because in England they respect that - it will be ideal for him."

Javi Martinez

"Pep is amazing. He has taught me so much. He makes you watch videos, he has tactics, exercises. He's always studying. He and his team [Domenec Torrent and Carles Planchart] are always watching videos.

"They watch everything: how you train, how you play against your rivals. We always have that (specific) detail on what you can improve. For a player, what Pep can do for you is amazing.'

"We watched more than 200 videos together,' Martinez explains in his first interview with an English newspaper. 'From the start, Pep told me he could see me as a defender and I had to be ready. So we started to exercise every day. A lot of repetitive movements on the training pitch. It could be boring at times – but you need it.

"I'd been injured for three months.

"Almost every day, Pep would come to me and say 'Hey Javi, how are you doing? Come on! Get well soon because we need you' – for me, that approach works. I would go home in a different mood. I would think 'I have to work because I have to help Pep and the team'. I had to be player again."





Philipp Lahm

"He is an incredible coach on a completely different level in terms of tactics. He’s a brilliant coach and I’m sure he’ll do a great job [at City].

"He really helps players develop and he even helped me improve at the age of 30. With Pep it’s more than just about winning trophies.

"You’re always measured by the number of trophies but he developed a lot of players with the way he thinks about tactics, the way he analyses games and prepares teams for particular opponents.

"The first thing they will have to know is this: keep your position. That is what he places greatest value on. I’m not worried."

David Alaba

"His training sessions are incredible workouts. He has reinvented football.

"Pep is someone who thinks about football 24 hours a day. With him, we have played better and better every year.

"I never knew that I could play in so many positions."

Xabi Alonso

“He likes the team to be in control of the game, because he thinks it is the best way to win games.

“When you have the control, normally you have more chances and give up less chances.

“I don’t think that we are going to change [the risky style]. We have a pretty clear idea of how we have been playing for the last few years.

“Win or lose, we will stick with the same idea because that’s how we feel that we are doing well.

“It might sound easy but I tell you, it is not easy because you know Pep is really ahead of his time. He is very demanding of himself and his players.

“But once you get to know it, I think that for myself it is the way we like to play. We like to play with control, and he likes that.”



Even his rivals like him...

Sir Alex Ferguson: “Without question Pep has got a fantastic work ethic about him, he demands that from all of his training sessions.

“Anyone who thinks they’re not going to work hard at City won’t last long. He has got great coaching ability, there is no doubt about that.

“Man City have made a real coup in getting him but Pep won’t find it easy, English football is not easy.

“Every foreign coach that has come to England will tell you that. Arsene Wenger was talking about that a few months after coming and even Jose Mourinho realised after his first season that what he achieved was hard work.”

Watch: James Robson discuss next season's City fixtures