As Pep Guardiola prepares to take charge of his 1000th match as a manager this Sunday against Liverpool, we look back at the defining, untold stories from his transformative decade at Manchester City. From a comically inauspicious first day to building a dynasty, his journey reveals the meticulous mind and surprising values of one of football's greatest coaches.
The Unlikely Beginning: Bentley, Bollards and a Warm Welcome
His arrival in 2016 heralded a new era, yet it began with a farcical snub. Driving a Bentley to a club with just four league titles to its name, the world's most recognisable coach was turned away at the gate because his name wasn't on the list. He was told to try another entrance, a humble start for a man who would soon dominate English football. The irony? Guardiola had spent weeks prior learning the names and faces of every staff member he might meet.
This attention to detail defined his early days. Upon finally entering, he greeted receptionist Stacey by name—a gesture emblematic of a leader who would later gift his own title-winning bonuses to the support staff. The flashy Bentley didn't last, eventually damaged by a bollard. It was replaced by a Nissan Leaf, then a Ford Capri, and during the pandemic, staff would chuckle as their electronic gates opened to reveal the elite coach arriving on a pushbike.
Building a Culture: Barbecues, Records and Raising Standards
Guardiola's true impact wasn't just tactical; it was cultural. A five-day team-building trip to Celtic Manor in September 2016 set the tone, with Guardiola mingling at a barbecue, keen to learn the personal stories of kit men and sports scientists. This cultivated a belief that everyone was integral, a sentiment he echoed before the 2023 Champions League final by praising departing sous chef Jorge Gutierrez.
He truly 'won' the dressing room in the final weeks of his second season. With the 2018 title already secured, Guardiola returned from celebrations 'grumpy'. He plastered potential records across the training ground walls and issued a challenge: achieve them or leave. Bewildered, the squad stayed. The result was a historic campaign: 100 points, 106 goals, and 18 consecutive wins—records that still stand.
"It was a change of mindset," a source revealed. "If we want City to be one of the best in the world, we cannot stop at one Premier League. We have to raise our standards." This demand for excellence was relentless. After a staff Christmas party in 2019, Guardiola was seen breezing through the near-empty training ground, quipping: "Back-to-back Premier League titles and nobody is working. What the...?"
The Tactical Evolution and Lasting Legacy
Guardiola's genius is in perpetual motion. "You never saw Man City playing the same way," Bernardo Silva notes. "We always change." His innovations are legendary: inverted full-backs, a box midfield, using John Stones as a midfielder, and transforming Ilkay Gündogan into a prolific goal-scorer. Gündogan's 17 goals in the 2020-21 title win was a masterstroke of player development.
His man-management is equally nuanced. He's a "lion in the dressing room," capable of spine-tingling team talks, like the one at half-time against PSG in 2021 that inspired a comeback. Yet he also knows when to provoke. Silva recalls a session in their record-breaking season: "Pep asked us, 'Are you tired? F*** you!'... He does it on purpose to keep us awake."
Now, at 54, he joins the pantheon of managerial longevity, a student of the game who reveres old-timers like Neil Warnock—invited to watch City train last year—and who genuinely loves English football's fabric, even watching National League kick-offs on a Saturday.
Despite discussing City being his last club job as early as 2021, Guardiola's fire burns. As he reaches this monumental 1000-game milestone, the story is not just of trophies—15 major honours at City, two European Trebles—but of a profound and enduring cultural revolution, orchestrated by a relentless, detail-obsessed visionary who made Manchester City a global powerhouse.
