Pep Guardiola and Alex Ferguson have been compared at length ever since the Spanish manager came to prominence at Barcelona, but how do their trophy cabinets at the two Manchester clubs compare?
Ferguson is largely accepted as the greatest manager of all time and his success with United returned the Old Trafford club to the top of the English and European game.
He joined the club from Aberdeen in 1986 and retired at the end of the 2012-13 campaign, concluding a 27-year stint in charge.
Guardiola, however, became a top-flight manager in 2008 and is still going. The Spaniard joined City in 2016 and has now been at the club for six seasons. In that time he's given the club unprecedented levels of domestic dominance, with only Ferguson's achievements comparable.
“When I arrived, the people here said the Premier League is so difficult, it is the toughest one,” Guardiola said before City clinched the title last May.
“Different teams would win, only Sir Alex Ferguson with United was able to take a lot of championships. When it happened you realised the magnitude of their achievement but now we are close to doing it, being part of that and we have to try to take it.
“A lot of work went on the first season when we didn't win. Of course, it is great to be in the position we are in now.”
Guardiola went on to say that the tenacity required to consistently win comes from the level of competition in the Premier League.
“If we have had this energy this season, why should we not have it next season. The competition makes this energy,” he said.
“If the new season was starting tomorrow I'd say, “Oh no, please, give me a break”. But the moment we start pre-season, new players and a first opponent, I'm sure the energy will be there again for us to try and be a good competitor.”
Guardiola's success domestically has been impressive and City won a clean sweep of all domestic trophies in 2019, becoming the only English team to ever do so.
But he has not yet been able to 'three-peat' the title by winning three back to back as Ferguson did on three separate occasions. He's also struggled with City at a European level despite his success in the Champions League with Barcelona.
We've taken a look at how Guardiola's trophy cabinet at City compares to Ferguson's at United. Admittedly, Guardiola is nowhere near Ferguson's total of 27 years in Manchester so we've also looked at their trophies per season record.
Alex Ferguson at United
– League titles: 13 (1992, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013)
– FA Cups: 5 (1990, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2004)
– League Cups: 4 (1992, 2006, 2009, 2010)
– Charity/Community Shields: 10 (1990 shared, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011)
European/World
– Champions League: 2 (1999, 2008)
– European Cup Winners' Cup: 1 (1991)
– European Super Cup: 1 (1991)
– Intercontinental Cup: 1 (1999)
– FIFA Club World Cup: 1 (2008)
Total: 38
Trophies per season: 1.4
Pep Guardiola at City
– League titles: 4 (2018, 2019, 2021, 2022)
– FA Cups: 1 (2019)
– League Cups: 4 (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021)
– Community Shields: 2 (2018, 2019)
European/World
Total: 11
Trophies per season: 1.83
Alexzo
33
This is so ridiculous, how could compare Sir Alex Ferguson achievement to pep guardiola's that are given Millions of pounds to sign players every season. Let me remind you most of the time Ferguson would go whole season without signing a single player, and all he could do was to promote players from academy team. Players like; Paul scholes, David Beckham,Ryan giggs,Garry Neville,west brown etc. How many academy are in man city first eleven aside from foden, the rest are not first eleven players. No coach in this era can do what he (Ferguson) did before now. Whether you take it or not one I mean no one.
skilz5
11
438 players in 27 years or 16 players per year. it's a shame people don't look at that
🔴⚫ GGMU