Pep Guardiola - Manchester City's Pep Guardiola announcement sends them truly global in a way all their recent success could not

By DaveKidd

This is a game-changer in more ways than one for a club that has struggled to sell-out even big matches and win fans outside their northern heartland 

 

  Need a drink, United fans? Guardiola puts the Reds even deeper in Man City's shadow

There was a panic on at Manchester City last week when it seemed they might not even come close to selling out the Etihad Stadium for the Capital One Cup semi-final second leg against Everton.

Ticket prices had been slashed and the club sent out video appeals from star players , but City were still around 5,000 short of their 55,000 capacity – as they were for the marquee Champions League clash with Juventus last September.

Against Sevilla a few weeks later in the same competition, there were 10,000 vacancies – and an avalanche of ‘Emptihad’ gags from United supporters.

 This is a club which attracted average gates of more than 28,000 in the third tier at their old Maine Road home in 1998-99. So the lack of glory hunters attracted to City since the billionaire Abu Dhabi takeover has been remarkable.

Space mission: Empty seats at Manchester City's recent Prem home game against Everton 

Even after two Premier League titles in the space of three years over the past four seasons, you’ll see precious few kids wearing City shirts in the south of England.

And while you’ll pay top dollar for a hovel of a Manchester hotel room when United are at home - due to the massive influx of football tourists - you can get a suite for half the price when City play on their own turf.

The Blues, for all their recent success, have remained a local club with a local fanbase.
It is endearing to neutrals, yet frustrating to the club hierarchy.

This is what Pep Guardiola’s appointment is going to change.

When City confirmed football’s worst-kept secret on Monday, that Guardiola will replace Manuel Pellegrini this summer, they became a truly global club.
Guardiola is a game-changer in commercial , even more so than in footballing,

    Just the ticket: City took out big adverts to try to sell cut-price seats for Cup semi-final 

 

After Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Saint Pep – with his Ready Brek glow of an aura – is the third most marketable name in world football.
  
He may have inherited Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta when he became Barcelona boss and he may have taken on Treble-winning European champions at Bayern Munich, yet City aren’t overly concerned about his team-building credentials.

They want a coach who can fine-tune what is comfortably the strongest squad in the Premier League, bring them domestic dominance and also challenge with style in Europe.
This announcement is what City have been planning towards for years.

Guardiola’s former Barca boardroom allies Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano were recruited in 2012, with a world-class academy system and infrastructure put in place .
This is a house custom-built for Pep, and finally he is ready to take up tenancy.

 Big success, small catchment area: City have won trophies but not enough hearts and minds

There will be unease at Chelsea, who have just sacked the only manager to rival Guardiola’s pulling power. And also at Man United, who must now decide whether to recruit that same turbulent coach — Jose Mourinho, the sneering, smouldering anti-Pep.
It will be difficult for United to resist that temptation now.

In footballing terms, the Reds are already Manchester’s second club . Can they allow the same to happen on the commercial front?

In comparison to Guardiola, Louis van Gaal is yesterday’s man. The plodding playing style and the old-school drill-sergeant approach are a turn-off to A-list footballers and worldwide audiences alike.
To pit a managerial-rookie Ryan Giggs against Guardiola would look reckless.
 
So Mourinho may end up thanking his nemesis Guardiola for inadvertently landing him the United job he has long coveted.

Action Images via Reuters Red alert: This Manchester United supporter is surely now more likely to get his wish

As for Roman Abramovich — well, Chelsea’s owner has pursued Guardiola for years, without ever providing him the stable environment City have fostered.
The London Blues will struggle for identity without Mourinho as well as John Terry, the last vestige of his great back-to-back title team.

Whether Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas, Oscar and Diego Costa are willing to stick around without Champions League football seems unlikely.

With Diego Simeone adamant he will stay at Atletico Madrid, any managerial appointment Chelsea make for next season will look distinctly second-rate. Even though they could do worse than Guardiola’s City seat-warmer Manuel Pellegrini.

In Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool do have a Hollywood manager – but he is in charge of an am-dram squad. As in the Bundesliga, Klopp will be unable to fight Guardiola on a level playing field.

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As for this season’s title rivals, Arsenal, Tottenham and shock-troops Leicester, they must realise that this year represents their best chance — perhaps their only foreseeable one — with Guardiola en route.

The Catalan may well be more about style than substance, but sometimes it is all about the look.
And thousands of empty seats is never a good one.