How could a long-term Manchester City stay for Pep Guardiola benefit English football?

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Pep Guardiola is heading into the new season with the knowledge that his Manchester City team need to do better. Last season, they finished in the top four, but they didn’t challenge seriously for the Premier League title. Their exploits in the cup competitions were nothing to write home about either.

This was always going to be the Spaniard’s toughest job as a manager, due to the ageing squad that he inherited. He has now gone a long way to tackling that problem with a number of additions since taking control. That is no longer an excuse for him and he needs to win a major trophy this season to consolidate his position as the Citizen’s top man.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager is not a fool. He knows that he will be judged by the trophies that he wins as City manager. There were a number in the media who wrote him off as overrated last season, which was a little premature. Rome wasn’t built in a day and Guardiola needs time at the Etihad Stadium.

In recent days, he has stated that he wants to extend his stay at Manchester City and carry on the project, if results are good enough to earn him a longer contract. He told Sky Sports:

“I will try to remain as long as possible to help, to help City keep moving forward and stay high,”

“I think the club has to work and listen to the manager in the right moment, but also take their own decisions in the future. Nobody knows what will happen. For all the managers in the world it depends on the results.”

In his previous two jobs, Guardiola had instant success and that was partly down to the players that he inherited, but not entirely. The Spaniard proved himself to be a world class coach and managed to get his teams to play an entertaining brand of football.

He has started to introduce that at City, but some of the players didn’t suit the style. Last summer, the recruitment was questionable as he failed to strengthen in both full-back positions, which was the team’s major weakness throughout the season. That has now been addressed and City will start the 2017/18 campaign as favourites to win the league, as a result.

Will Pep Guardiola help English football?

It may be a coincidence, but it is interesting to observe that the last two World Cups were won by the country that Guardiola was working in at the time. He is clearly a coach that improves players that work under him and English players at Manchester City will become more technical under his watch.

This is something that the England national team has lacked in recent years and the influx of quality coaches across the Premier League can only help the Three Lions become a more dominant team on the international stage.

This World Cup is likely to come too soon, but there is talent in this country, as we witnessed across the various youth international tournaments that were played over the summer. At Manchester City, he currently has Kyle Walker, John Stones, Raheem Sterling, Fabian Delph and Patrick Roberts under his watch, while there are several talented youngsters in the academy.

They will hope to benefit and if they do, the national team will reap the rewards.

Guardiola can also help inspire a change in the thinking in this country when it comes to youth development. There has been too much emphasis being put on physicality and not enough on the technical skills required at the top level.

As a nation, England always come up second best in that department when facing the likes of Spain, France and Italy on the international stage. There needs to be a re-calibration and Guardiola can influence that.