By Douglas Baye-Osagie
When Pep Guardiola arrived in Manchester in 2016, English football was good. When he left in 2026, it had been rebuilt in his image. For a decade, Pep didn’t just manage Manchester City. He redefined what was possible in a football field.
In ten seasons at the Etihad, Pep turned City into a machine of sustained excellence. He managed 593 games, won 416 of them, and walked away with a 70.3% win rate and 1,422 goals scored. Numbers that speak of dominance, but only begin to tell the story.
The trophy haul is staggering: Like we say in the local parlance “trophy nar water.” The trophies kept coming and we almost lost count until his final day on the job. 20 pieces of silverware. More than any manager in City’s history. More than most clubs win in a century.
Domestically, Pep conquered England like no one before. Even the great Sir Alex Ferguson, arguably the greatest club manager in England, didn’t get a rush of trophies like Pep did in a decade. Six Premier League titles: 2017-18, 2018-19, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24. He is the only manager to win four in a row, from 2020-21 to 2023-24.
The 2017-18 season was the statement. 100 points, 106 goals, a record that stood untouched. It wasn’t just winning. It was winning with beauty, control, and relentless attacking football.
The cups followed in waves. Three FA Cups in 2018-19, 2022-23, and 2025-26. Five League Cups in 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2025-26. He now holds the record for most League Cup wins as a manager.
Three Community Shields in 2018, 2019, and 2024 completed the domestic sweep. City became the team everyone measured themselves against.
But Pep came to England to win Europe. In 2022-23, he delivered. Manchester City beat Inter Milan 1-0 in Istanbul to claim their first Champions League. It completed the historic treble: Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League. Only the second English club to do it.
That treble put him in a club of one. Pep became the first manager to win a continental treble with two different clubs, having done it with Barcelona in 2008-09.
He added the UEFA Super Cup in 2023 and the FIFA Club World Cup the same year, making City the first English club to win five trophies in a calendar year.
Beyond the trophies, Pep changed the league. High pressing, positional play, inverted full-backs, and goalkeeping with the feet. Rivals didn’t just lose to City. They spent years trying to copy them.
His impact is clearest in the coaches he shaped. Two of his assistants in Manchester have gone on to win major trophies themselves, and a generation of his former players are now doing the same in dugouts across Europe.
Mikel Arteta left City to take over Arsenal in December 2019. In his first season, he beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final to win the 2019-20 trophy. He added Community Shields in 2020 and 2023, and guided Arsenal to the Premier League title in 2025-26.
Enzo Maresca was Pep’s assistant before taking charge of Leicester and then Chelsea. In 18 months at Stamford Bridge, he led Chelsea to the UEFA Conference League and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2025. Two trophies in two finals.
The influence stretches back to Pep’s playing and Barcelona days too. _Xavi_, Pep’s midfield metronome at Barcelona, returned to manage the club in 2021. He restored Barcelona to La Liga glory in 2022-23 and won the Spanish Super Cup, instilling Pep’s principles of possession and control with his own identity.
_Xabi Alonso_, who played under Pep at Bayern Munich from 2014-2016, made an even more immediate mark. Taking over Bayer Leverkusen in 2022, he delivered an unbeaten Bundesliga title and DFB-Pokal in 2023-24, ending Bayern’s decade-long dominance with a team that played with Pep-like precision and courage.
_Vincent Kompany_, Pep’s captain at City and later a player-coach under him, carried those lessons forward. After stints at Anderlecht and Burnley, he was appointed Bayern Munich head coach in 2024, winning back to back league titles with some swashbuckling football and becoming the first black manager ever to win the German Bundesliga.
That’s the Pep effect. He doesn’t just build teams. He builds managers. His coaching tree is already winning in England and across the continent.
Players speak about him with a reverence that goes beyond tactics. Bernardo Silva, John Stones, Fernandinho, and others returned just to say goodbye in 2026. Pep said, “I don’t cry, but when I see Bernardo cry, I cry.”
Kevin De Bruyne once said Pep made him see the game differently, that training under him felt like “chess at 100mph.” Phil Foden credits Pep for turning him from a talent into a match-winner. The praise is consistent: demanding, detailed, but deeply human.
Pep himself insists it was never about the silverware. “The luggage of memories I put inside is more than any other,” he said in his final press conference. “Without 20 trophies they would have sacked me before, but you are not at home and see the trophies and say ‘Oh, how happy I am.’”
What he leaves is a standard. City’s 100-point season, the four-in-a-row, and the treble. Records that may stand for decades. But more than that, he leaves a belief that football can be both beautiful and brutal, artistic and ruthless.
And now his name is etched into the stadium itself. The *Pep Guardiola Stand* at the Etihad stands as a befitting, permanent tribute to a decade that changed Manchester City and English football forever. It’s more than a gesture. It’s a landmark for every fan who witnessed a revolution in blue.
Erling Haaland, Manchester City’s top scorer, had this to say about Pep, which aptly summarizes his work ethic:
“A coach who never stopped teaching. It sounds crazy to say this, but you made greatness feel normal. Even after hat-tricks, wins, and trophies, there was always another lesson, another challenge, and another level to reach. That mentality changed this club forever and changed me too. The honour of a lifetime to work with the best. Thank you for everything, boss.”
Pep Guardiola came to England to prove a point. He leaves as the most decorated manager in the Premier League era. He raised the bar, changed the game, and inspired a generation of coaches and players. English football will never be the same. And that’s his greatest trophy of all.