In response to my question, Pep focused on player quality.

“We adapt to the quality of the players that we have. We have just one proper proper winger right now in Antoine and we adapt the system to make comfortable the players.”

It’s telling that for one of the most successful coaches in football, his approach is player-led.

In recent years, numerous coaches have been hired and subsequently sacked for a tactical style they have been unwilling to waver from.

Guardiola in 2026 still believes in unlocking low blocks by dominating possession, and pinning teams into their own half, as he did 20 years ago but in aiming to get the best of his team, tweaks his tactics based on his players, to perform these principles.

Although Guardiola and his staff will be drilling into their players the best way to move and interact with their team-mates, the reason these tactics have worked well for City in recent weeks is due to the players suiting the positions they’ve found themselves in.

Pep has reinvented his side numerous times throughout his career. Promising coaches are sometimes described as playing like Pep but this claim is often less true given that Guardiola’s sides looks so different, so often.

Despite this, the way he thinks about the game and his core beliefs have been unwavering over a remarkably long time and his 2006 columns provide clues as to how the City manager was likely always destined for the top.