Pep Guardiola has had plenty to say about the football calendar recently, but the Manchester City boss admits the relentless nature of the schedule might have helped him survive as long as he has at the Etihad.
The Catalan is the second longest-serving manager in the Premier League behind Jurgen Klopp and only two managers at the 72 EFL clubs have lasted longer than Guardiola and Klopp in their roles.
Guardiola has been in the job seven years and 98 days when he takes his City side to Arsenal on Sunday, for what will be his 426th game in charge of the club.
That is more than the 408 matches he managed combined during spells in charge of Barcelona and Bayern Munich and only Les McDowall has managed more games for the Blues, taking charge of 592 fixtures during his 13 years in charge from 1950 to 1963.
Such longevity is unusual in the modern game and Guardiola admits he has often wondered how his players have never got sick of him during his trophy-laden years in Manchester.
“It’s a good question for the players. I am asking this question many, many times for myself,” he said.
“‘Oh again, this guy is shouting at me and saying something again and again and again…’ That is why sometimes you have to refresh the squad, the players or move the manager.
“It’s an honour to be the second-longest serving manager right now behind Jurgen. That means we have done really, really well because the big clubs don’t wait.”
Guardiola has regularly criticised the game’s governing bodies for failing their duty of care to the players by creating an even more demanding schedule of games, with City’s participation in the 32-team Club World Cup scheduled for June and July 2025 the latest example.
But he does think that the nature of having a game every three days and the lack of time on the training ground helps to maintain his relationship with the players – because he sees so little of them.
“I will tell you something, when it’s a long week I think it will be more and more difficult to maintain that. But at the end, playing every three days, you don’t train,” he said.
“I’d love to be on the pitch and the grass, smell the grass and see the players do whatever they do. When I like the behaviour I compliment them. When they are flat, after that they will be in trouble with me.
“But I don’t feel like a trainer on the field. The manager looks at the board, in the office. The calendar and the schedules make you become a manager because all the time you are in the office watching games, what we have to do. In the pitches, 45 minutes, one hour.
“That’s why I don’t spend much time with the players. 45 minutes, then the meetings on the day of the game. The rest of the time I am not with them, they are not with me. That’s maybe why we can sustain longer this relationship.”
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