As an investment shareholder, Manchester City coach Guardiola has opened a clinic in Barcelona that specializes in longevity and regenerative medicine. The project aims to fully recover and maintain health. Recently, Guardiola accepted an exclusive interview with the GQ team. He spoke freely and talked about the topic of coaching Manchester City.
■I experienced some difficult moments in your first season of coaching, although as you said, it was not a complete disaster... Then do you still have the enthusiasm you used to be?
"Yes, there are still, but that enthusiasm is different. But imagine, if this season is much worse, much worse, and worse than now, then so what? If I continue to coach next season... that's no big deal. Oh, some people are looking forward to us losing... that's OK. Yes, we are third and have not performed well in the season. You tell me, which team has never experienced a bad year? Fortunately, we can still play next season's European game, it's okay. So, the enthusiasm is really different from when I first started. At that time, I felt less secure, more doubts, and more fears. But I still like this job."
"When playing football, I said to myself, "Enough, it's over." "As a coach, there will be one day when I will say, "Enough, I don't want to manage the players anymore, I don't want to study the opponent's tactics anymore, I don't want to press conferences every three days, and I don't want to deal with the boss anymore. "At that time, I would say, "Now I am the boss myself, I don't have to set an alarm clock anymore, I can arrange my own life. "This day will come sooner or later. I will stop when I come, maybe I will come back later, maybe not. Let's talk about it then."
■The players have different personalities, and dealing with them is probably the most difficult part of your work, right? Feel like a psychiatrist, a father, or a brother?
"Yes, but it is also a job that is very grateful. You can get a lot of good rewards. After all, you are dealing with a group of very good people. They are healthy and active players. I have been a player myself, and I really love these players very much. They have brought me a lot. Of course, I have had conflicts with some people, but I understand that because human nature itself contains conflicts."
"I have 23 players, and I have to choose 11 people every three days. 11 of 23 or 22 people. The remaining 11...wow, they will think I don't like them. But in fact, I may love them more because I will be sad for them. But what they think in their hearts is: "Why don't you choose me, but choose someone else? "This is related to our eternal emotions - we all want to be loved and recognized."
Do you know what I want? I want to be loved, from the love of the people around me, and I hope they love me very much, really love me very much. In this way I can live safely.
Just like when you are doing an interview, if someone says to you, "Wow, this is awesome!" You will be in a particularly good mood all day. But every three days I have to say to 11 players: "You are not good enough, I won't choose you. You are very good, but your teammates are better than you."
This is the root of the conflict, it's that simple. So how to solve it? How I wish I only brought 11 players a year and only trained these 11 people. But the problem is that they will be injured. You can't play games with only 7 people, you have to have a substitute.
■It is indeed...
but we are really good to them. Our nutritionists are amazing, and there is also a player care department that will take care of them, their families, children, and help them find schools, obstetricians, pediatricians. If the car breaks down, someone will help them repair the car. They have all the conditions and resources so that they can train and perform well.
But they just want to play because they are really strong. These 11 players who failed to play are also super top-notch. But because of their limited location, they sometimes can't fight.
They will think to their hearts: "I get my salary here to play football. But now you tell me that I can't do what I want to do the most."
How do you think I should solve it? I told them, "You trained well and did a good job."
They thought, "I will definitely be able to play in the next game." But I still didn't play in the next game. I still didn't play the next game. How could a conflict not occur? This is simply impossible to avoid.