alex fergusson statue at old trafford

Pep Or Sir Alex: Who Is The Best Football Manager Of All Time?

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Although the origins of the creation of football are one to be debated, what is known is that many legendary managers have come and gone.

From the likes of Sir Matt Busby to Johan Cruyff, football has been nurtured and moulded by the great managers of the game.

A phenomenal set of players won’t make a remarkable team, only a manager can do that.

The best managers in footballing history have led their teams, indoctrinating their players into their principles, creating that unbreakable winning mentality, which goes beyond just one, or two league titles, but the desire to keep winning forever.

This is what separates the managers of the good teams, from the great. Those teams which may win, but then lose the desire and passion, to those which hunger that winning feeling until the day they retire.

But who really is the best football manager of all time?

This is a question that will be debated everywhere and anywhere, from in school, to in a university lecture, or at work. It’s something which rarely people agree on.

The only fundamental most agree on, is that it’s between two legendary managers.

Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola.

In this article I’m going to finally tell you who’s best.

To judge these legendary managers, I’m going to be taking into consideration: trophies, impact on football, finances, the team’s origins, eras and youth.

Trophies

Sir Alex Ferguson:

Ferguson won 49 major trophies in his managerial career, spanning all the way back to 1977, with Scottish side St Mirren, until 2013, when he lifted the English Premier League title for the last time.

After his years at St Mirren, his time at Aberdeen is where the Scotsman really progressed his career. Ferguson won three league titles with Aberdeen, four Scottish cups and a Scottish league cup. In addition, what really made Ferguson’s name was his European Cup winner’s cup success with the Scottish side in 1983.

Ferguson’s men beat European giants Real Madrid in extra time. This, to this day, is the last time the 14-time Champions League winners have been beaten in a European final.

Such success earnt Ferguson his big move to Manchester United.

At United, the Scotsman won 13 Premier League titles, two Champions League’s, five FA Cup’s and four League Cups. This in addition to an abundance of smaller less significant titles, like the Community Shield.

Pep Guardiola:

Guardiola has won 36 major trophies which is 13 shy of Ferguson but with Guardiola and his team’s only becoming more successful, its likely only a matter of time before he catches the most decorated British manager of all time and then surpasses him.

Guardiola initially was incredibly successful at Barcelona, winning three league titles back to back, the Champions League twice and the Spanish cup twice. This was alongside several less significant trophies like three Spanish super cup wins.

At the end of the 2011/12 season, Guardiola left Barcelona and a year later became Bayern Munich manager. In Germany, the Spaniard won three league titles, two German cups, a UEFA Super Cup and a Club World Cup.

After just three years in Germany, Guardiola joined Manchester City.

The Spaniard is still the present manager of the sky blues. In his seven years in Manchester, Guardiola has won five league titles, one Champions League, two FA Cups, four League Cups, two Community Shields and a UEFA Super Cup.

Crucially, both Guardiola and Ferguson have won the English treble. Until City’s triumph in the Champions League against Inter Milan last season, this had been the one trophy defying Guardiola and his City side. Since he’s now matched Ferguson’s historic treble, the Scotsman no longer has the edge here.

Furthermore, with the Spaniard now having won three Champions League titles in his managerial career, this puts him one ahead of Ferguson. Significantly, Guardiola has only been managing around 15 years, whereas Ferguson managed for 39 years. Thus, you could argue that with Guardiola only being 52, by the time he retires, he’ll likely have significantly more trophies than United’s greatest manager.

However, we can only go off the factual evidence. From this we know that Ferguson has won more trophies, but he did it in a much larger time span and the fact Guardiola has won 36 major trophies in 15 years is utterly phenomenal.

In addition, with Guardiola having won one extra Champions League title than Ferguson now, I’m going to give the Spaniard the overall victory in the trophies debate.

Finances

The biggest criticism that holds Guardiola back in debates around his success is the money spent. This has validity, but it would be misleading to suggest Ferguson wasn’t a top spender in his time at United as well.

Whilst managing the red devils, Ferguson broke the British record transfer fee five times, bringing in players like Roy Keane, Andy Cole, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Juan Sebastian Veron and Rio Ferdinand.

However, although Ferguson spent, he was an effective seller as well. This meant in his 26 years at United, the Scotsman spent £546.5m but sold £320m worth of players leaving a net spend of around £226.5m. With inflation, it’s incredibly difficult to compare to the spend of Guardiola, but a net spend of only just over £200m in 26 years is impressive.

Guardiola has spent over 1.4 billion euros in his time as a manager which equates to over £1.1 billion. Such spending is illustrated by the fact that in his time at just Manchester City, the Spaniard has spent over £400m on defenders alone. However, with inflation, prices have rose drastically and so comparing the fees would be misleading. But, in terms of net spend, Guardiola’s at City is £-478m as per the 10th June 2023. Since then, City have spent another 241m euros and sold 114m euros worth which increases Guardiola’s net spend to around -£600m.

Thus, it’s clear to see that Guardiola, although difficult to compare, has spent a lot more significantly than Ferguson did. Granted the Scotsman did break the transfer records, but his net spend is a lot smaller than Guardiola’s is in 19 years less at the club.

Therefore, financially, Ferguson takes the overall victory.

Teams’ Origins

With Guardiola seemingly having an unlimited checkbook wherever he goes, a huge argument debating his quality is around how he joins already successful clubs and doesn’t have to build them up. This argument occurs because Guardiola joined an already strong Barcelona team in 2008, a Bayern Munich side who’d just won the Champions League and a Manchester City side who had won a couple titles in the years before his arrival. Thus, this combined with his ability to spend freely has made people question his quality as he hasn’t had the struggle of making an average team great.

However, this as an argument would be a little bit misleading when discussing his time at Barcelona. Granted, at Manchester City and Bayern Munich he adopted successful sides, but his transformation of the Barcelona side is something that cannot be ignored.

Guardiola sold players like Ronaldinho and Deco, deciding to rely on those who progressed through the youth academy like Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi. It would be wrong to suggest Guardiola solely made these players great and individually turned these youngsters into world class players, as the likes of Messi and Xavi had already been playing for years. However, the development of these players is truly special. Guardiola indoctrinated Messi into a false nine, whilst creating arguably the greatest midfield of all time with Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets in a midfield three. This was significant in moving away from the traditional two-man midfields of the past. In addition, similarly to Barcelona, he advanced and improved City way beyond what they formally were, turning them into trophy winning machines, which was way beyond the success they had before his arrival.

Therefore, Guardiola has been given advantageous positions when joining clubs, but his development of teams isn’t something which can be ignored.

However, when compared to Ferguson, it’s a completely different story.

The Scotsman guided Aberdeen to their first league title since 1955, winning another two in the process. Thus, when Ferguson joined Aberdeen, they weren’t used to winning. But in the seven years Ferguson had there, he turned them from almost never winning, into serial winners.

Similarly, in Manchester, when Ferguson joined, United hadn’t won the league since the leadership of Sir Matt Busby in 1967. United had won a few FA Cup’s in the dry years without league titles but weren’t serial winners by no means. Ferguson rebuilt United from the ground up, taking them from a big club struggling, to the most successful club in England and arguably the biggest club in the world. Granted, transfer spend helped, but it was the Scotsman’s ability to graft and continue through difficult times, even when on the brink of the sack and take United into the glory days which sets him apart. Therefore, when considering where each club started from, the arguments around the amount of years before trophies becomes more irrelevant, as Guardiola particularly at City adopted a strong squad, whereas Ferguson adopted a team in desperate need of change.

Thus, when regarding team origins, Ferguson takes the victory.

Impact on football

Throughout Ferguson’s managerial career, until the last five or so years, he used the traditional 4-4-2 set-up. The Scotsman only transitioned to the 4-3-3 shape due to the developments and changes in football that Guardiola himself was so heavily involved in. Although the Spanish manager wasn’t the founder of the 4-3-3, as that dates back to the 1960’s, his use of this system at Barcelona revolutionised the game, as it pushed most teams still using a traditional setup to adopt a three man midfield, else they’d be overrun by the newer, more dynamic system Guardiola was using.

Furthermore, in the last couple years, Guardiola has started using inverted fullbacks. He used the likes of Rico Lewis, Nathan Ake and Joao Cancelo in this role. This role change was used by fullbacks comfortable to fill in as that extra man in midfield, which created even more overloads. In addition, Guardiola started using John Stones as a centre half, stroke defensive midfielder. The English defender would have the license to roam forward and due to his progressive passing ability combined with his quality when dribbling with the ball, Stones created another overload in midfield as he was yet another man to mark.

All these intricacies and adaptations that Guardiola makes, have been influential as other managers like Mikel Arteta have tried adopting similar techniques.

Ferguson’s influence on football isn’t relative to styles of play, but more the winning mentality and promotion and use of youth. His decades of success have tormented rival fans, leaving them, to this day, scarred by the dominance of United in the past.

However, when it comes to the sheer impact on football, with regards to the style and how it’s played, Guardiola takes the victory.

Era’s

Recency bias and nostalgia are two issues which can plague a footballing debate and thus comparing Ferguson, who competed in the mid 80’s up-to the early 2010’s, to Guardiola, who’s managed from the late noughties to the present day, is an incredibly difficult thing.

However, the difficulty of certain era’s cannot be ignored.

When discussing the late noughties and early 2010’s, Guardiola comes on top as his Barcelona sides beat Ferguson’s United sides to two Champions League titles in 2009 and 2011.

Therefore, in a pure head to head rivalry, Guardiola will always win that part of the debate due to those victories.

Despite this, the latter years of the 2010’s and the 2020’s have been incredibly different to the quality of the years before it.

You could say its nostalgia bias, but when looking at the quality of the Champions League in recent years particularly, its declined significantly.

To win the Champions League last year, Manchester City faced Borussia Dortmund, Copenhagen and Sevilla in the group stages, RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the knockouts, before beating Inter Milan in the final. Now the likes of Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Real Madrid in particular, are huge European names, but the quality of these sides in the 2022/23 season aren’t relative to their legacy and history.

Bayern Munich were seconds away from losing a league title to Dortmund, in one of the lowest point scoring Bundesliga seasons in years. Then, Real Madrid were struggling in La Liga, finishing 10 points behind rivals Barcelona. Granted, no matter Madrid’s form outside of Europe, you cannot underestimate their ability in the Champions League, but even the 14 times winners looked weaker than in previous years. You could argue its because City made them look worse, which definitely is an argument particularly in the second leg as they blew them away. However, in years gone by, particularly under Zinedine Zidane’s leadership, Madrid wouldn’t have been beaten like that and would likely have beaten that Guardiola side.

Era’s is an argument which will never be agreed on, but I do believe the quality in the Champions League has dropped. From the powerhouses of the late nineties, to the quality of the likes of Inter and AC Milan in the noughties, as well as Chelsea, United and Barcelona, it just doesn’t compare for me.

Therefore, with Ferguson having competed in the eras with these stronger teams, I think this has to be taken into consideration. In addition, in England, the quality of the Arsene Wenger Arsenal sides, or the Jose Mourinho Chelsea sides, cannot be understated. The rivalry between Wenger and Ferguson truly made the Premier League what it is.

Thus, I believe that the titles Ferguson won in the late 90’s and noughties era, are more impressive than Guardiola’s title wins now. The argument against this would be Jurgen Klopp’s juggernaut Liverpool sides. However, I don’t feel they would be on the level of the Arsenal or Chelsea of old.

Ultimately, eras are something that has to be considered and I do believe Ferguson competed mostly in a harder era. However, people would argue the Premier League wasn’t as competitive as it is now due to the fact that United dominated so easily. Ultimately, I think with regards to eras, Ferguson takes the victory, but its not something which will define this debate.

Youth

I’ve touched upon Guardiola’s trust and use of the youth at Barcelona, which is very impressive. In addition, at City, he’s promoted and used Phil Foden and Lewis. However, this isn’t comparable to Ferguson.

Ferguson’s promotion and growth of the ‘class of 92’, turning six talented academy youngsters, into world class players who were integral to United’s dominance in the 90’s, is something to this day, which is phenomenal.

Unlike Guardiola, who used some players which had already played a lot by the time he arrived, Ferguson developed these youngsters himself, managing their game time and media presence to ensure success.

Contrary to Alan Hansen’s statement ‘that you don’t win anything with kids’, Ferguson was the manager to prove this wrong.

Therefore, Ferguson’s success in the 90’s, although partly from expensive transfers, was largely due to his promotion and use of the academy and those six graduates. If Ferguson had ignored these youngsters, it’s very likely United wouldn’t have done nearly as well.

As a result, with regards to youth, although Guardiola used the youth at Barcelona exceptionally, Ferguson takes the victory.

Overall

This is the hardest football debate I’ve ever had to write or think about.

Ultimately, I believe with all assets given to him, Guardiola can create football teams better than that of Ferguson, but Ferguson can work teams from the ground up, turning them into world class teams which Guardiola couldn’t.

Thus, Guardiola is the better manager with full backing, but Ferguson is better without full financial backing.