Or Arteta as a footballer. 
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Do you really think that Man City team is full of world class players? Because I donāt.
I think Pep has them playing like they are though.
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They have a damn good squad tbf and definitely a few WC players like De Bruyne, Aguero, Silva, etc. what is impressive is how he has them so cohesive and organized and has integrated (and developed to some degree) Jesus, Sterling, and others into really top players. He deserves massive credit for the way they are playing and racking up points, but they are a very good group of players and are now reaching their potential.
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They routinely have one of Aguero/Jesus, B. Silva and Gundogan on the bench. Itās a very good squad. Unreal achievements from Pep so far though.
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According to a Man City fan, Arteta probably is more of a 4th right hand man than a right hand man to Pep:
Heās one of 3 assistants with Domenec Torrent and Brian Kidd but then Manel Estiarte is Pepās right hand man, and Carles Planchart is the head analyst and Pep talks go them all about the same amount on the touch line.
Wouldnāt think Arteta is that high up the hierarchy, I think heās mostly a link between players and coaches, and someone who helped Pep adapt to England.
Wouldnāt count on Arteta being manager material any time soon if heās basically just a messenger boy for Pep and the players/coaches.
They do have a good squad. Arguably the best in the league. But itās not a million miles away from Chelsea or Man Utd. or to a lesser extent, us and Spurs.
But I think if you put Pep in any of the top six teams, theyād be doing this.
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Cityās squad last season was better than most, yet he didnāt do as well as he should have.
He does need a certain set of players to execute his football.
I donāt think every club can afford to bring in what he needs. certainly not Arsenal.
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I think heād do it on a shoestring budget
Seems like people make it too binary - I look at it more as Baseball analytics (WAR or variant)ā¦ to me, he either adds wins to a team via his tactics and management (harder to factor in transfers unless you have longer tenure, but you can certainly judge them as well) or he doesnāt - obviously the players you have at your disposal are the single most important variableā¦ to me, he is the highest WAR (or to use a football variant PAR (points above replacement) manager in the world right now.
Iām not even sure it is close. I donāt even really like Pep, but damn he is Fergie-good right now and perhaps leaves with a legacy similar to Fergie, albeit in a very different manner.
What I have to respect the hell out of is also the fact that his teams (bar a short period for Barca where they really were kind of annoyingly boring and maybe that was simply b/c they were so dominant in possession) are really entertaining and play great attacking football and make use of supremely talented attacking players to their maximum.
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Thank god someone finally wrote this. Totally necessary to the argument and the nonsense that Trion and a4tt bring to the table.
I would rate Pep above Fergie, too, but thatās just me. You might need look no further than how much better Pepās BarƧa teams were than Fergieās United teams and the fact that Fergie openly recognised that playing against Pepās BarƧa made him rethink his position on the type of players/play he needed to open his mind up to.
The bolded should practically be copy and pasted in any further discussion of Pep on this board, to avoid the kind of poor discussion/weak playing down of Pep that Trion and a4tt and perhaps a couple others regularly engage in.
Itās not as if he has gone out and bought the best players in Europe.
A lot of his first team were already there when he arrived and signings like Stones, Walker, Jesus, Sane, Ederson, Mendy etc were all within our price range.
He has also turned players like Sterling, Delph, Otamendi, Fernandinho etc, into first team regulars and important to the first team.
They are playing the best football in Europe with players that were all within the other top clubs budget, including us, and it is nearly all down to Guardiola, who could also have been within our reach if we had an owner with any imagination or ambition.
It is hard to judge due to eras, but I wouldnāt disagree if he continues like this for another decade or twoā¦ what joins the two is their willingness to play actual football, attack, and play with flair and guts - to own up to their financial might and run with it, unlike that cowardly cretin Mou.
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Which was my point. Iām yet to see him do that.
ādo itā meaning what exactly? It is a stupid point to make b/c no manager in the world can reliably win āon a shoestring budgetā - to my point above, he adds points to his squads, periodā¦ in my opinion more than any other manager out thereā¦ doesnāt mean he turns Huddersfield into champions of Europe though, but that is a stupid way to look at it.
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In the modern era of football? No chance
Heād achieve limited success if he ever came to Arsenal but sustained on a finite budget? donāt think so tbh
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The concept - saying that āhe hasnāt done it with a small clubā is meaningless in this era. The true test of great managers nowadays is whether they can take a big club and deliver the good reliably - he is the epitome of that and frankly is taking ManCity to a whole new level atm. I think he would do better than any other manager at any club probably, but that just means he would have more points than them, not that he would necessarily win titlesā¦ it is unclear tbf what you guys mean by ādo itā or ādo thatā in your points, so maybe I was a bit harsh.
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I wouldnāt call Everton, Sevilla or Lazio small clubs. If it was Crystal Palace or similar however I totally agree with you. Itās an impossible thing to measure, but it would be interesting to see if his managing skills would be enough to make a team (right under the top) take the next step. Thatās why I praise Simone and Klopp a great deal. They have had limited resources and not that many WC IMO.
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I do rate Pep very highly and the football he gets his teams playing, but Iād love to see him manage a club thatās next tier down, eg Arsenal, Liverpool, Roma, Sevilla etc
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Whatās WAR & PAR?