Pep Guardiola: Proving Grounds

A very good month apart from the Schalke blip

I stood and stared out the window as I sipped my coffee. I was back home, well sort of. I turned around and the players were still discussing whatever. I looked back out the window. The sky was so clear, we had had some rain over the past few days in Munich but here the air was as crisp as ever. The terminal wasn't busy and so I could walk around freely. I just kept staring out of windows. Eventually I came up to a sign, it read welcome to Madrid, Spain. I stood for a while and out of nowhere Thiago and Javi Martinez joined me. I turned and smiled at them and we moved on. Unfortunately, though we were in Madrid a place where I and Thiago were not particularly welcome. I expected to be hassled as we made our way through the terminal. It was quiet as ever though. We got out round the back of the airport and no one had noticed us. A coach was waiting there and players piled on. It was a nice bus and we would be at the hotel shortly. It was always the same routine with these trips. Get their before mid-day, go to the hotel, go to the stadium, train go back to the hotel. It was no different this time.


A few hours later and we found ourselves standing outside the Vicente Calderon. Atleti had been going well so far and were ahead of Barcelona in the league. The stadium was almost deserted and again we walked with no hassle. I got into the dressing room and dumped my stuff, the draws were almost completely hidden and everyone was lost as to where to put their things. Thiago and Martinez however found it straight away. I laughed and walked out. The tunnel was completely empty and to be honest it was quite spooky. As I walked towards the pitch, my loud footsteps were echoed around adding to the haunted house feeling. When I reached the end of the tunnel, the light burst into my eyes. It was always like this and I put my arm up to block the sun. Suddenly all the memories came flooding back. I stood there for a while before making my way over to the away teams bench. As I sat and looked at the empty seats the players came walking out. Followed by some coaches. I watched as they got into some shooting practice right away. Müller blasted a couple past Neuer, whereas Volland's efforts were easily saved by Starke.

As I sat and watched, I started to think back to my plans of how we were going to deal with the opposition. I had focused on Diego Costa and David Villa a lot. That's when it hit me. I would get to see David again. He was such a great player for me at Barca and a great lad overall. I couldn't wait till game day. It was then that I decided I would get off my ass and go through our attacking movement with the team. An attack vs defence game, however I had kept our attacking tactics a secret from our defence so they would have to adapt. It took up a long time but I was satisfied with the days work. We just had to do it tomorrow in order to build on our victory over city.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/03/article-0-192C6FDA00000578-146_634x423.jpg

Another great update!

6th minute: “What the F*** Thomas, what was that”.

“What happened Pep?”

“Müller headed the ball back across the goal for Villa who headed it in, it was a joke. A f***ing joke. It would’ve been a great defensive header had it not been to Villa, ah S***”.

Half time: “Boys, this is not good enough. I want to win this and I’m sure you do too. We haven’t created a thing, although they haven’t either apart from the corner. Now the goal, Thomas, what were you thinking. Honestly I mean what did you think heading it across goal would achieve? Come on, you’re better than that and so are the rest of you. We should be winning this game if we want to win the group, so let’s go let’s get this done. Come on.”

49th minute: “Ribery cross it, come on get it in, ah Alderweid good header. Yes Kroos, great header, Thiago look, look at Müller…………..YES. Great work Thomas”

“He certainly redeemed himself. Right we need another, COME ON BOYS, let’s keep going”.
92nd minute: “Ah, that was poor, we need better performances than that to win this competition, yep that’s our aim. To win this competition and we need to play a lot better than that, but we can play a lot better than that. Thomas, well done in redeeming yourself. OK we have a tricky game next week, away at Stuttgart, we can win that and we will probably have to win it to stay ahead of Dortmund. Right, get your stuff together and we’ll go back to the hotel.”

I thought back to the game, I was annoyed that we could not beat them as I had always had the better of them at Barca and now I couldn’t beat them although they were much stronger. I decided I would walk out and get on the coach. As I passed the Atletico Madrid changing room, I saw David Villa leaving. I shouted after him,

“Hey David!”

“Pep, I was hoping to see you. How are you boss?”

“He He, I’m, not your boss anymore”.

“Oh yeah, anyway, how’s it going?”

“ Yeah mate, it’s great. Bavaria is fantastic. It’s a great club and we’re looking to achieve big things, anyway how’s Madrid?”

“Oh it’s great, not as good as Catalonia but it’s still pretty good. Also the team’s great, we’re really good this year and we’ll be going for top spot in this group”.

“Ha, good luck cos’ we’re gonna be going for it too and it’s gonna be hard to stop us.”

“Pep, I gotta go, I’ll see you in Munich yeah?”

“Yeah, I look forward to it, good luck till then”.

“Thanks Pep”.

Suddenly my boys came out of the changing room and the smile was wiped off my face, I turned and walked over to the coach, took my seat and looked out the window. I didn't look at anyone and just sat their perfectly still. The players must have known something was up and decided that they wouldn't attempt to make eye contact. The trip back to the hotel was short and silent. I didn't move a muscle, I was so disappointed. However I was confident for the next game, Stuttgart were a very good side but we were better. I couldn't wait till the flight back. I could relax a bit then and forget about this game. For now I just wanted to spend some time by myself and think ahead.

Damn, should have beat them. Ah well, they're still a good side, so not too bad

Great updates Jozef
Unfortuntate not to beat Athletico but they are a good team.

"Aaaaaaarrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhh, s***. Rafinha you cretin."


I looked over at Dom as he protested the Brazilians innocence to the fourth official. I looked over and half-way through his argument he caught my eye and I shook my head. He scowled at the official and backed off. He sat and as he did Joe Ledley placed the ball on the spot. I sat down and put my hands together as if I was praying to the God's. It was bloody Celtic and here they have the chance to draw level at the Allianz Arena in the last minute. Ledley stood, puffed out his chest and ran. Time seemed to slow down. I looked down for what felt like ages, but as I looked up the ball was yet to be struck. The ball flew towards the top corner. I closed my eyes and they were greeted by a flying body dressed in green. A hand sprung out and the ball rolled across the line for a corner kick. It was a fantastic save and one that saved us form a draw. The players ran over to Manuel and he pointed and shouted as Ledley went over to the corner to put in a cross. I felt like running onto the pitch and hugging him myself but I stopped just before I entered the field of play. It was headed away by Kirchhoff. The ref blew the whistle and I jumped up. Then I realized that we had only beaten Celtic and that the camera's were on me. I landed, tucked in my shirt and straightened my jacket. Neil Lennon didn't bother shaking my hand. I watched him trail off down the tunnel and he threw his arms up in the air. I laughed, suddenly a ginger head turned around. I quickly turned and started to shake the hands of some of the Celtic players. I anxiously turned my heads but Lennon was no longer facing me. I exhaled a huge amount of air, stood and watched the crowd.


I turned and walked towards out tunnel. I looked around and Lahm was following close behind. I could see on his face that he was expecting a bollocking. I stood and watched him go in. I thought about it. I decided I wasn't going to give them the hairdryer treatment. I decided to give them something else. Ribery was the last one to enter the dressing room. As he walked to it, I gave him a good stare. He didn't make eye contact. I shook my head and followed him in. They were all sat down, every single one of them were looking at the ground. I stood in the middle and raised my arm and my shoulders, as if I was asking for an answer from them as to why they were so bad. I stood in that position, a couple of them looked up and then straight back down. I took a good hard look around but I couldn't see their faces.

"So?"

Silence.

"Would anyone care to explain me why we struggled to beat Celtic?"

Still silence.

"There are only two people I'm happy with today. I think you can guess who they are. No? Dante and Manuel. Dante if it wasn't for you we would have lost and if Manuel hadn't pulled off one of the saves of the century we would have only had a point. Why? Celtic are a very poor side. If they were to come into the Bundesliga they would be around 10th to 13th. A win should have been easy, why did we struggle. You go home tonight and think about today. Next up is a tricky game, it's also a long trip up north to Hamburger. We can do this, I want you to think about what we could've done better tonight and do it against die Rotthosen. Right, our Champions league campaign is still well on track. Let's just focus on the last 3 games. OK, let's go home. I'm sick and tired of today. "

" How the f*** has that gone in? What on earth was that?"


I turned to Dom who looked as clueless as I was. I stood completely still and watched as Zhi Gin celebrated his goal in the corner. It was so sudden and it meant that we would leave Hamburger with 0 points. Honestly they had deserved it but that in itself had annoyed me. It was disappointing that it had to end like this. I then realised that I hadn't looked at the clock. 89 minutes, that meant we had an while left to get an equalizer. I stood at the end of the technical area and ushered the team forward, they looked despondent and I could tell that we were going to lose today. This made me think about the team-talk. I realised I couldn't give them what I truly thought. They were all down and telling them my opinion would only make things worse. I decided that I would bluff my way through the team-talk. I would have to be careful because my players aren't stupid and could detect such a thing. As I snapped out of my thought process I saw the ref blow the whistle and the players exit the field. They were quite clearly hurt by this and so I decided to put a smile on my face. I put my arm over Philipp Lahm, he shook his head as we walked out and then took my arm off himself and trudged down the tunnel. Manuel cam next and he had a guilty face on. After all, he let that horrendous cross into the back of his net. I shook hands with Van Marwijk and he seemed pleased. I didn't mind Bert and so I smiled back and congratulated him. I then walked down the tunnel too and carefully pushed open the door. The players were there and they looked tired. They lay their head against the wall.

"I know what you expect but honestly that's not what I thought of today. It was a long trip down here, HSV are a very good side and everyone knows that it's very difficult to get a win at the Imtech arena. It was a freak goal and it shouldn't have gone in, we were unlucky. We had defended well the whole game. I wished that we created more chances but we can't always be perfect. We were unlucky and I mean it. You all look very tired guys, so enjoy your day off. We have to catch our flight in a few hours. I'm sure none of you want to stay here any longer."

I walked out of the dressing room first as I do always and I smiled to myself. I think I did a good job of bluffing my way through it and I don't think my players saw it either. I looked into the HSV dressing room and Van Marwijk was de-briefing his players. I decided to have some fun. I pushed open the door and ran out to the coach that was waiting to take us to the airport. I don't think anyone saw and it brought another smile to my face, already I was forgetting the game.

Not doing so great as of late, but I believe in you

Ha Neuer fayul Nice update

I looked through the small window in the door. I managed to catch Dom's eye and I nodded. He nodded back and then turned away from the window. It was then him that pushed the door open and Thomas was the first to enter, he was then followed by everyone else. They sat down ion front of me as I sat in front of the projector. I didn't move a muscle and I could see the look of curiosity on their faces. I sat with a face that was not a smile or a frown. I reached onto the small desk with the laptop on it and picked up the remote. Without moving my eyes, I pointed it to the ceiling and pressed a button. The screen behind me then flashed into life and it came up with some results of ours. I quietly moved myself out of the way and they all read the screen. The results were all of the games we dropped points and included some that we won but played poorly. Then those faces of curiosity turned into concern. I looked over to the door where Dom was standing and then I pointed the remote at the projector once more and pressed the same button which turned the system off. I stood up. I looked around at the players and then began.

"These results are unacceptable, however I don't want you to get the wrong idea. We are not disappointed with your performances so far. We just want to iron out some of those mistakes and this means not conceding as many points as we need to. Of course I can not expect you to win every game, a couple of bad results can be excused. There is a couple too many here though. Last year this wouldn't of happened. I don't know what Jupp did last year and quite honestly I'm not interested because I'm my own man and I want to run things my way and so I am about to tell you my way. Effective immediately, you will no longer have a rest day before a match. You will work on the game on that day instead of staying at home. I promise you that this will help us get results. I know that you liked that extra day off, however this means I won't set you any Homework, because I'll cover that in the training session on the day. I will make a promise right now to you. It's a challenge and a hard one. If you win every game in November than you I will reinstate that rest day because that will make you happy. However I will take it away for big games. Understood? Ok good,go and have your lunch."

I watched them disappear out the door and I laughed a bit. Dom closed the door behind them I watched through the small window to see them leave. I saw Arjen throw his hands up in the air. I chuckled to myself and turned back to Dom.

"Do you think they'll do it?"

"No, not a chance. I know that they haven't got any hard games bar City, but they're angry."

"Honestly, I think they will do it. They really liked that day off. Also they should power through everyone."

"Alright Dom, €20 that they won't do it."

"Alright,€20 it is."

We shook on it and then walked out to get some lunch, already I was regretting the bet.

the last update is your best yet in my opinion i honestly like this story a lot keep up the good work

Dom will soon be €20 richer me thinks

Haha, great story, mate, I like your style!

Typical Robben Nice update