Really? Puyol, Xavi say hello. Frank even who stayed here longer than pep.
And btw. Pep left Barca 3 years ago. Let's not pretend he's still coaching Barca.
As far as I'm concerened any team he coaches can fail miserably because it's only rivaling Barca.
No one. No one was born & bred Catalan, became ballboy for the club, went to La Masia, became a 19 year old 1st teamer hand picked by the godfather of Barcelona football in Cruyff, won a CL as a player, Captained the team, became an idol for Cesc, Xavi, Iniesta, Thiago, Busquets et al, became coach of the youth team and had them jump 2 classes of obscurity to rejuvenate the club before revolutionizing the club & world football when he coached a team in utter disarray and won every competition there was to win and which no one has ever replicated. His success & contributions continue to live on after him.
So no, there is no one who is more Barcelona than Pep Guardiola. It's the very fickle & selfish nature of human beings now to knock or diminish the contributions of predecessors when they move on. But every member in this forum, myself included, should be embarrassed to ever question that - makes doing that incomprehensible and spoiled as fans. Moreover, you won't find one negative syllable uttered when discussing Pep by any of the club legends you mentioned much less Lucho, even they know what a god he is to Barcelona.
And no, it doesn't mean any us should be rooting on the teams he coached but perhaps show more respect that he is sharing his brilliance with other clubs and continuing to impact the game while learning about other cultures, leagues, players, clubs etc. before finally & inevitably returning home. As Pep not long ago reminded us
"When people ask me why I love Barça, I tell them it's like asking me why I love my parents." Pep was born Barça
How will you spin it when he comes back? Will you welcome him back with open arms or still take digs because of how the current board tried to tarnish his legacy while they eroded so many of the other pillars of Mes que en club. Looking at the decimation of La Masia alone in such a short time is simply one.
Much to much said against him. I am certain he has faults like all of us as he is not infallible but if you are a fan of the club, no one deserves more praise than someone who's contributed as much as Pep to this club. And don't kid yourself, this historic trident is largely responsible for our current success along with Lucho's intensity but will always be inexstricably linked to what Guardiola started as he got this club winning, believing and hungry to dominate. That's the true legacy of the greatest champions, they live on even after they are gone.
Xavi agrees:
'He doesn't give himself a minute's rest. He's pig-headed, football is his everything and he puts so much intensity into everything. Pep's almost got a sickness for football.'
Guardiola's father, Valenti, a bricklayer, offers this: '
He is much more intense than he was as a player. Pep lives Barca 24 hours a day. It's too much. His mother suffers for it. We worry because he takes it all so much to heart, but that's the way he is.'
Capello who briefly coached him at Roma:
'He's one of the few intellectuals I have come across in a dressing room, intellectual in the sense he thinks about a lot of things. A lot about football, of course, but also about literature and other cultural things.
'At his peak, Guardiola was one of the quickest thinkers on the field. He was a true leader. He was calm, always had the right words at the appropriate moment. 'There are a lot of players who talk a lot and say nothing. Guardiola would find the right things to say.'
Messi:
“Pep immediately transmitted an enormous amount of pride in our work, ambition and hunger. He won our confidence from the first day because we could see that things were being done correctly and then when results started to flow the confidence grew with them.”
Pep in an article in 2000: '
I arrived to try to change the world. Now all I hope for is that the world will not change me".'
'There is a special relationship between Catalans and this team we call Barça. Catalonia was repressed for many years, culturally and in the use of its own language. That makes you love these things more and want to defend them at the national and international level.'