Rio Ferdinand has said that Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola is the greatest manager of all time.
Speaking on TNT Sports, the popular pundit made this claim after City’s 3-1 win against Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday night.
Rio Ferdinand went as far as to say that no matter in the history of the game is in the same league as Pep Guardiola.
Rio Ferdinand says Pep Guardiola is the greatest manager of all time
Branded as ‘ruthless’ by the i Newspaper, many consider the Catalan tactician as the absolute best, especially after he became the only coach to have ever won two trebles in his career.
Ilkay Gundogan, for instance has said that the Spaniard is the finest manager he has seen in his lifetime.
Now, Rio Ferdinand has also said that Pep Guardiola is the best manager of all time when named amongst a list of coaches with the most wins in Champions League history, such as Carlo Ancelotti, Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho.
“I think his win percentage as well would be hugely impressive. I’d argue he’s arguably the greatest out of all of those guys on there. But I think one of his greatest attributes is to get players to then, like you [Laura Woods] were talking about before, integrating into his squad.”
Rio Ferdinand gave an insight into why he believes Pep Guardiola is truly one of one, saying, “He gives them so much information and he equips them with so much that when they go on there, like Rodri alluded to there [in his interview], they can probably go on there and play passes blindly because they’re so well-drilled. It’s like a well-oiled machine.”
Pep Guardiola is clearly the greatest
Rio Ferdinand is spot on and in every respect, it is hard to find too many chinks in the armour when it comes to Pep Guardiola.
At Barcelona, the decorated manager built what is widely classed as the best team of all time.
While his stint at Bayern Munich is often slated, Guardiola’s domestic dominance remains unprecedented in Bundesliga history.
Whereas at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola took a club that would win trophies here and there and spearheaded them towards being arguably the best English side in history.
All this while tactically influencing the game in a manner that has never been seen, the 52-year-old is well and truly a one-of-a-kind coach.
