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It was news that many people were not exactly expecting it to happen, but it was confirmed on Thursday that Pep Guardiola has extended his contract at Manchester City. Reading this, you are probably thinking, why do you start with that when you are supposed to write about Liverpool? Well, there is a good reason.
Go back less than a year and it was Jürgen Klopp who extended his own contract, keeping him at Anfield until 2024. It would mean he would spend nine years in charge, making him Liverpool’s longest-serving coach since Bob Paisley.
For Guardiola, his new contract runs through 2023, which would place him among the managers with the longest service at the club. For neutrals, this was fantastic news. Two of the best coaches in world football go head-to-head for at least a few more years, further fueling the belief that the Premier League is home to top talent. From Liverpool’s perspective, it can only be seen as a compliment to their performance in recent seasons.
When Guardiola first came to England in 2016, everyone expected Manchester City to make it to the league year after year as it did in Spain and Germany. It took him a year, but he finally managed to get away with it on the home front. Everything was going to plan for them, but they did not count on what Liverpool would do in the last two seasons.
The 2017/18 Champions League campaign saw Klopp and his players eliminate Man City in the quarter-finals. Then the following year, although both teams never met again, they both had contrasting fortunes. While Liverpool won the trophy, Guardiola was once against proving defeat in the last eight.
And yet, despite Liverpool winning the biggest prize in Europe, they still fell short in the league. At that point, if you asked each club which trophy they would rather have won, the answer would probably not be the one they really have in their hands. Liverpool wanted the title that had eluded them for three decades, while Man City still longed for the trophy they have yet to reach, let alone win it.
That year was certainly a sign of things to come. Despite all the excitement that Man City would dominate the league for years to come, Liverpool came along and scrapped those ideas with an overall win last season. An 18-point gap is something that certainly would have bothered Guardiola, and it certainly played a role in convincing him to extend his contract at Etihad Stadium.
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Liverpool’s victory at Anfield last November, in particular, showed just how far the club has come with Klopp. Quality, implementing the tactics instructed by the backroom team and intuition in the game to understand what was required at each specific moment. Klopp and his players had let Guardiola know that they would not only be present in the short term. They are the real deal and they are ready to fight for every challenge.
It is something that Guardiola is not used to dealing with in his career as a coach. In Barcelona, he dominated La Liga and won two Champions League titles. Yes, there was competition from Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid, but at the Camp Nou he reigned supreme. He then moved on to Bayern Munich, where he was again the dominant force in the league, but this time he was eluded by Europe’s top trophy.
And at Man City, where Guardiola was also expected to forge a team good enough to win all the trophies. Liverpool have disrupted those plans significantly by winning the Champions League and stopping their dominance in the Premier League. And the signs this season are that the Reds are still in a stronger position to retain their title, despite the cloud of injuries currently hanging over the club.
It seems then that Liverpool’s recent triumphs have contributed to Guardiola extending his stay at the Eithad. In the past, the longest time he had managed a club was four years, and he already eclipsed it in Man City. All of this goes to show how much Liverpool’s dominance and success have impacted their rivals in recent years.
That Guardiola completely changes his management pattern, that is one of the biggest compliments for Liverpool and Klopp. For years to come, we will have the pleasure of seeing the two top management heavyweights go head-to-head for the biggest awards in football, and it certainly looks like an exciting future.
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