This season has witnessed the end of so many eras of football, with a number of footballing legends also playing their final World Cup.
Former Liverpool star Jamie Carragher believes the end of the season marks the end of the managerial debate around who the greatest manager of all time is, with the pundit believing Pep Guardiola has finally surpassed Sir Alex Ferguson.
And for the first time in a while, Carragher might have a point, writes Rant Sport’s Wanga Charma.
Ferguson’s red dominance
Firstly, let’s talk about Sir Alex and give him his flowers.
His first notable spell came at Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership, where he broke a 15-year streak of dominance by Rangers and Celtic in winning the league in 1980, 1984 and 1985.
A feat overlooked by many fans, it was his introduction to world football and in 1986 he was appointed as the new Manchester United manager.
Taking over a lacklustre United side and proceeding to make them one of the strongest forces in modern English football, Ferguson won 13 Premier League titles over a 27-year span in arguably the most difficult and physical league in the world.
Three-peating the league while battling other managerial juggernauts like Arsène Wenger and José Mourinho in the early 2000s and claiming the UEFA Champions League twice in 1999 and 2008 was no mean feat.
The 1998–99 season even saw a treble of Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.
That achievement is widely considered the crowning moment of his managerial career – and when he retired in 2013, it was basically consensus that he was the greatest manager of all time.
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Pep’s blue machine
Enter stage left Josep Guardiola, who at the time of SAF’s retirement was in the midst of a Bayern Munich stint that saw him win two German doubles in three years at the club.
He had arrived in Bavaria off the back of a hugely successful debut tenure at Barcelona.
In his first senior managerial role, he won a historic treble in 2008–09, winning the Champions League final against Sir Alex’s United no less.
As if that was not impressive enough, the team ended that campaign with a sextuple of trophies before going on to win a second UCL title in 2011, besting Ferguson for a second time in three years.
Introducing a new style of play called tiki-taka, Guardiola revolutionised football.
The Catalan took his philosophy to Germany, where he broke all sorts of records, but the Champions League eluded him.
In the summer of 2016, he signed a contract with Manchester City, the ‘baby brother’ of the Manchester teams – and in his first season, he ended the campaign without a trophy for the first time in his career.
It was a failure he took personally as he bounced back the following season with his first Premier League title thanks to a record-breaking 100-point effort.
Guardiola ended up four-peating the league but after losing the UCL final in 2021, it seemed as though that European title may never return to Manchester.
However, it was not the end as in 2023 he was finally able to overcome his European nightmare by winning the Champions League with Man City for the first time in their history – and it was a treble to boot.
Now, 10 years after taking over at the Citizens, Guardiola is stepping down and closing off a legendary quarter-century at the top level of world football.
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Final verdict
When you take a step back and analyse these two icons’ managerial careers, they are both impressive and legendary in their own rights.
Sir Alex boasted 49 trophies in 39 years, whereas Pep has 40 in about half the time.
They both created footballing monsters in Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, respectively, and they both dominated eras within the Premier League.
Carragher himself is known for his sometimes abhorrent takes on football – but after this season, Pep may just have eclipsed Sir Alex as the greatest manager of all time.
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