Must Pep Be A Bit More Like Benítez?
The infuriatingly endless wait for the portly, besuited dignitaries of world football to trundle onto the creaking on-pitch podium at the Zayed Sports City was just too much for poor Pep Guardiola to take.
In that punishing pause between the final whistle and Carles Puyol lifting the World Club Trophy above his permed head, the Barcelona boss was hit by a wave of emotion and burst into a flood of uncontrollable tears that only a hug and a joke from Zlatan Ibrahimovic could stop with a laughing Guardiola wiping his eyes and giving the Swedish striker a shove. "He was very emotional," admitted Xavi. "I'd never seen him like this."
Whether it was the pressure of an extraordinary 18 months finally taking its toll or simple, honest relief over Pedro's late equaliser in the final against Estudiantes and Leo Messi's injury time winner, Pep certainly isn't telling. "These things happen," shrugged Pep after the game.
However, it was during these emotional minutes after Barcelona had become arguably the greatest club side in history by picking up their sixth trophy in six, when Pep Guardiola demonstrated why he is such a universally loved and respected manager, but also showed why he may have to seriously change his ways if he is to continue at the top in the years to come.
Guardiola is a man who was born a couple of centuries too late. The former midfielder is more like a hero from Jane Austen's world than a modern football manager. He is dark, brooding, handsome but forever the gentleman. He is someone that men want to be and women want to be with.
But the Catalan coach is also a person who takes his football very seriously indeed. Too seriously. Despite having been in charge at the Camp Nou for just 18 months, Guardiola is thinner, greyer and, as he admitted on Saturday night, "a happy, but very tired person."
Whilst other big managerial beasts of the game rant and rave to release their demons and prevent their hearts from exploding, Pep Guardiola holds them inside. The idea of the Barcelona boss refusing to shake someone's hand, bitch about referees or moan to the press about money is unthinkable.
Pep is most un-Spanish in his preference for internalising his emotions and holding everything in. The only time a release is ever allowed and his fierce facade falls is in his wonderful goal celebrations, the finest being after Andres Iniesta's effort against Chelsea that had him bombing down the touchline before being reminded by Sylvinho that the match was not yet over.
But to survive the next days, never mind the next decades, Pep may need to take some lessons from his more pugnacious peers, no matter how disagreeable and counterintuitive that may sound, and show a little more of his mean streak.
And that is something he certainly possesses. Guardiola can be ruthless when it comes to obstacles he feels are in Barcelona's way. Deco and Ronaldinho were shipped out as soon as he started, and Samuel Eto'o was moved to Serie A over the summer, because of "a lack of feeling".
Careers of former 'future stars' such as Bojan have stalled because Pep doesn't rate them, whilst others such as Pedro have grown for the simple reason that they do the business for Barcelona.
However, Guardiola is fiercely loyal to his players both past and present and genuinely seems to feel that they have been the key to Barcelona's stunning success over the past eight months rather than himself.
"The footballers are the ones who deserve everything," claimed Pep, who took time out on Saturday, "to thank all the players we've had, Silvio (Sylvinho), Samuel (Eto'o), Alex (Hleb) and Guddi (Gudjohnsen).
Although Guardiola deserves a good spell of laurel-sitting, the more melancholy side of his nature spoke of the dark times ahead for the club in trying to match their incredible feats in 2010.
But even the Madridista paper, AS, writes that the only person expecting more of the same from the Camp Nou club is Guardiola himself. "Hillary couldn't climb any higher than Everest and still had a happy life," noted the paper's editorial on Saturday.
The immediate challenge for Guardiola is the ongoing Primera pursuit by Real Madrid, who go into Spain's two week winter break just a couple of points behind the league leaders after dishing out a 6-0 spanking to Zaragoza.
Then there's a Copa del Rey double date with Sevilla. Soon after that, it's the Champions League once again, with Barcelona facing Stuttgart and looking to become the first team since Milan in 1990 to win back-to-back titles.
Guardiola admitted that both himself and his team were exhausted by the previous month that saw the pressure piled on top of the Camp Nou club both at home and away but that ended with a spotless record that produced Champions League wins against Dynamo Kiev and Inter Milan and a victorious Clásico clash against Real Madrid.
And is this 'final' after 'final' routine - as any big game is branded in Spain - that is partly the reason for why Pep Guardiola has yet to make any kind of commitment as to his immediate future at Barcelona?
His current two year contract ends in June and the current president, Joan Laporta, would very much like him to extend his deal "to give stability to our institution."
The problem is that Laporta will only be in charge until the end of the current campaign having served his two term limit at the Camp Nou.
A presidential election is due to take place in the spring to choose his successor and until that happens, Pep is unlikely to make any decision especially as one or two of the candidates are known not to be his favourite people.
Should Guardiola decide to quit while he is ahead, he is most likely to move on to England or Italy - whose languages he is more than comfortable in - an ambition that he spoken of in the past.
But to make sure that the 38-year-old extends his managerial life into his next decade and beyond, he perhaps needs to study the weird ways of some of the managerial heavyweights of world football.
They are not always palatable nor popular, but tantrums, rants and raves are away of releasing the punishing pounds of pressure that build up on men in such lofty positions and is a key cause for their longevity.
It could make him a little less loved, but Pep may have to stray into the dark side if his next 30 years in the job are to be as good as his first.
Home
