Richard Keys Names 4 British Managers Better Than Pep Guardiola

· GiveMeSport

Liverpool and Man Utd icons included - Richard Keys names four British managers better than Pep Guardiola

The dust hasn't even had a chance to settle after Manchester City were found guilty of all 115 FFP charges in football's 'trial of the century' against the Premier League , but the revisionism surrounding a period of unprecedented success is already in full swing.

What will happen now is anyone's guess - whether they will be stripped of their Premier League titles is the biggest question. But even if they aren't, the reputation and legacy of the Citizens' finest sides might never be taken seriously in quite the same way, and they will always have an element of wrongdoing hanging over their heads.

In Richard Keys' opinion, the case does a lot to diminish Pep Guardiola's reputation as one of the greatest managers in football history. The Spaniard has managed Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City - and the revisionism from the outspoken pundit has led him to believe there are four British managers who deserve to be held in higher regard than Guardiola.

For a manager to be considered a 'genius', he must 'build empires from nothing'. That's according to BeIN Sports' Keys, who claimed Guardiola's genius lied in his timing. He wrote on X:

> "Turns out Guardiola’s genius was his timing. That’s all. If you’ve worked with only the best wherever you’ve been, you should be winning trophies. True genius' build empires from nothing."

He leans on the idea that Guardiola, who left the Etihad Stadium in May to take a break from football management, has only ever really overseen clubs that were already at the top.

Barcelona were the crown jewels of Spain upon his arrival, while Bayern Munich are often seen as a one-club league in Germany, having won 20 of the last 26 Bundesliga titles on offer.

Now, at Man City, he has found himself under further scrutiny for managing a club with a seemingly endless pot of gold, who sportswashed their way to the top and, surprisingly, only managed one Champions League title during that time.

In the same post, Keys pointed to four British managers he believes displayed more genius than Guardiola. In the full X post, he also continued (see below) :

> "True genius is what [Bill] Shankly, [Don] Revie, [Matt] Busby did - build empires from nothing. And [Brian] Clough who won the European Cup twice with buttons."

Each of the four managers he listed can be celebrated as the respective clubs' - Liverpool , Leeds United, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest - first architects of success.

Back in a time when sponsorships, foreign ownership and big money had yet to dictate how the working-class game was run, these managers completely changed the way their clubs were perceived without any form of fast-track pass.

To put things in simpler terms, the exact amount of money Man City lied about spending between 2009 and 2018 has now been revealed.

Of course, Guardiola must still be celebrated, but Keys may have a point in parts. Newcastle haven't benefited from Middle Eastern ownership in quite the same way, and that is because City's revenue and costs were reportedly worked out nearly £900 million differently from reality.

Guardiola may be a brilliant football mind, but it's hard to ignore the fact that he has always had virtually every resource he could need to reach the top.

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