{"id":6811,"date":"2026-05-22T14:35:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T14:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/how-guardiola-compares-with-ferguson-and-other-english-managerial-greats\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T14:35:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T14:35:53","slug":"how-guardiola-compares-with-ferguson-and-other-english-managerial-greats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/how-guardiola-compares-with-ferguson-and-other-english-managerial-greats\/","title":{"rendered":"How Guardiola compares with Ferguson and other English managerial greats"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Pep Guardiola won 17 trophies in his 10-year stay at Man City, but how does his record stand up in English football?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Pep Guardiola is leaving Manchester City after changing the face of English football over the last 10 years.<\/p>\n<p>But how do his achievements at City compare with those of other great managers to have worked in England down the years, such as Alex Ferguson, Bob Paisley and Brian Clough?<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 4 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/22\/japans-world-cup-2026-team-preview-players-to-watch-group-squad\">World Cup dark horses: Can Japan finally break last 16 barrier and go far?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/21\/shocked-maguire-posts-on-insta-that-he-is-not-in-englands-world-cup-squad\">Shocked Maguire posts on Insta that he is not in England\u2019s World Cup squad<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/21\/who-are-the-10-best-fifa-world-cup-players-of-all-time\">Puskas to Pele: Ten greatest FIFA World Cup heroes<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 4 of 4<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/5\/21\/mamdani-cuts-limited-world-cup-tickets-for-new-yorkers-to-50-after-furore\">Mayor cuts limited World Cup tickets for New Yorkers to $50 after furore<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>The numbers and records nearly speak for themselves.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"pep-and-the-premier-league\">Pep and the Premier League<\/h2>\n<p>Guardiola always valued the domestic league higher than any other competition and he established an era of record-breaking dominance, leading City to six titles in his 10 seasons (60 percent) \u2014 including the unprecedented feat of four in a row (2021-24). Those six titles came in a seven-year span. He finished outside the top two on just two occasions.<\/p>\n<p>As an overall percentage, only Paisley (66.67 percent) has a better title-winning record of modern-day managers. In his nine years at Liverpool (1974-83), he won the English league six times and was only outside the top two once.<\/p>\n<p>Ferguson won the league title 13 times in 26 full seasons at United (1986-2013) but started out at a lower base, with the club being near the bottom of the standings and without a championship in 19 years when he took over. From the year of Ferguson\u2019s first league crown (1993) to when he retired, United\u2019s title-winning percentage was 61.9 percent \u2013 slightly higher than Guardiola\u2019s but lower than Paisley\u2019s.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"pep-and-the-champions-league\">Pep and the Champions League<\/h2>\n<p>For a club of City\u2019s Abu Dhabi-fuelled resources, its record in the Champions League under Guardiola has been underwhelming \u2014 and he acknowledges that.<\/p>\n<p>One title (2023), one more final (losing to Chelsea in 2021) and just one other semifinal appearance (2022) is a disappointing return for a team widely regarded as one of the best in Europe for most of his reign. Guardiola can, of course, point to two more Champions League titles in his four-year stint at Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>Ferguson won the Champions League twice with United, though even that was also regarded as a below-par return considering the team\u2019s domestic dominance.<\/p>\n<p>Of British managers, Clough and Paisley hold the most enviable records. Clough won the European Cup with Nottingham Forest in back-to-back years (1979 and 1980) \u2014 a remarkable feat at a provincial club \u2014 while Paisley won the competition three times (1977, 1978 and 1981) in five years.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"pep-s-total-trophy-trail\">Pep\u2019s total trophy trail<\/h2>\n<p>Guardiola has won 17 major trophies in his decade at City, putting him only behind Ferguson in English football\u2019s all-time list.<\/p>\n<p>Ferguson captured 28 trophies, but had 16 years longer in the job than Guardiola.<\/p>\n<p>Next comes Paisley, with 14 major trophies, followed by former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger (10, of which a record seven were FA Cups), Clough (nine, across his spells at Derby and Forest) and former Man United manager Matt Busby (eight).<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"oints-totals\">Pep\u2019s points totals<\/h2>\n<p>Under Guardiola, City racked up two of the top three points totals in English top-flight history \u2014 100 in the 2017-18 season (Guardiola\u2019s second in charge) and 98 in the 2018-19 season. In that seven-season span from 2018-2024, City set new standards in consistent excellence by collecting more than 90 points in four league campaigns \u2014 helped by having a top-class rival in Liverpool pushing it all the way.<\/p>\n<p>That Liverpool team under Jurgen Klopp picked up 99 points in 2019-20, when breaking up City\u2019s run of titles, and 97 points in 2018-19 when taking City to the final game of the season.<\/p>\n<p>In the era when it was two points for a win (before 1981), Liverpool held the record for most points in a season with 68 in 1978-79. That equates to 98 points if there had been three points for a win, but Liverpool played 42 games instead of the current 38-game campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Also notable was Chelsea\u2019s haul of 95 points in 2004-05, the first season of Jose Mourinho\u2019s first spell there. That was a record at the time.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"pep-s-records-and-a-first\">Pep\u2019s records \u2013 and a first<\/h2>\n<p>Guardiola has never been shy to highlight the records he has set at City \u2013 and there have been many.<\/p>\n<p>The only team in the nearly 140-year history of English football to win four top-flight league titles in a row. The first team to win 100 points in a top-flight season (2017-18). The most goals \u2013 106 \u2013 scored in a single Premier League campaign (also 2017-18). The first team to win the domestic treble of the league, FA Cup and League Cup in the same season (2018-19).<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola also emulated Ferguson in both winning the Premier League-FA Cup-Champions League treble (United in 1999, City in 2023) and wrapping up a Premier League title with five games still to play (United in 2001, City in 2018) \u2014 a record until it was broken by Liverpool in 2020 (seven games to play).<\/p>\n<p>Something Guardiola never managed, however, was Wenger\u2019s greatest feat of going an entire league season unbeaten (with Arsenal in 2004).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pep Guardiola won 17 trophies in his 10-year stay at Man City, but how does his record stand up in English football? Pep Guardiola is leaving Manchester City after changing the face of English football over the last 10 years. But how do his achievements at City compare with those of other great managers to &#8230; <a title=\"How Guardiola compares with Ferguson and other English managerial greats\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/how-guardiola-compares-with-ferguson-and-other-english-managerial-greats\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about How Guardiola compares with Ferguson and other English managerial greats\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}