Pep Guardiola has comfortably established himself as one of the best football managers of all time.
Having won numerous domestic and European titles with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, the 53-year-old was appointed as City’s manager back in 2016.
Since then, the Spaniard has gone on to break numerous records and win a plethora of trophies at the Etihad Stadium.
Despite that, one pundit has shared his doubts over the City manager’s ability to take on one specific role.
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Andy Townsend doubts over Pep Guardiola’s suitability to manage England
While discussing the possibility of the FA looking to hire Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp as their next permanent England manager, Andy Townsend had this to say on the matter in a recent video shared on the talkSPORT YouTube channel.
He said: “I personally feel that if, and the FA won’t be in this position, of course, they probably won’t get either of them, but if they could choose either Jurgen Klopp or Pep, I would suggest that Jurgen Klopp would be better suited, his style, the game that he plays at it’s best that I saw at Liverpool, I think is better suited to a group of English players.
“Now there will be those that would completely argue with that saying hold on, England don’t keep the ball, Pep’s teams are brilliant at keeping the ball.
“But can a Pep Guardiola walk into a dressing room full of good, very good England players and absolutely get them singing to his tune in what would be a relatively short space of time? I’m not totally convinced.
“I’d love to have the opportunity of being in a dressing room and listen to the sort of stuff that he demands from his players because it must be fascinating and very, very enlightening to be in there.
“But can you do that with a group of England players? You’ll see them three or four times a year and more often than not for a week at a time. It’s not easy, it can’t be easy to do.”
Would Guardiola be able to be successful with England?
After Gareth Southgate resigned from being the England manager, it was reported that the FA are willing to wait until 2025 to approach Guardiola about the role when his current contract at City expires.
With international management being something that the Spaniard has not been involved in before, it’s easy to see why Townsend thinks a potential shift away from club coaching may not be completely suited to the City boss.
However, we feel that his experience managing top-level players over such a significant period of time and the clear intelligence he has would make potentially coaching England something that Guardiola could adapt to and thrive doing.
