Following another Premier League title for Manchester City and another major trophy for Pep Guardiola, Jamie Redknapp has dubbed the Spaniard “the greatest manager ever”.
Speaking on Sky Sports‘ punditry panel after Man City lifted the title in their final home game against Chelsea, the former player waxed lyrical about the Catalan coach and his incredible managerial record, with this latest Premier League trophy making it five English league titles alone.
Redknapp then went on to state, “I think he is the greatest ever”, not only for what he’s done for football in this country but across Europe over the course of his career thus far.
Big words, and while many may debate over who that ‘all-time’ title goes to, it’s hard to argue against him being the best coach on the planet right now.
🗣️ "I think he is the greatest ever!"
Jamie Redknapp believes Pep Guardiola is the greatest football manager of all time pic.twitter.com/wBMBICbnxW
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 21, 2023
As the 49-year-old former Liverpool and Spurs player went on to add, he said he believes Pep Guardiola “has changed football.”
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“There’s been some great managers; if you go through history – Arrigo Sacchi, what he did at AC Milan… Johan Cruyff, what he did in terms of playing out from the back”, said Redknapp, “but if you go back to grassroots football, whatever, everyone plays the Pep way: out from the back.
“We thought this was impossible but it’s because of the way he has changed everyone’s perception of the game, the way everyone is so comfortable [on the ball], midfielders coming into different areas, splitting defences.
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“I think he is, for me, he is the greatest ever. He’s won 11 domestic titles in the 14 years that he’s been a manager, 48 major trophies [including as a player]. You can talk about Sir Alex Ferguson as well, Bill Shankly — but, for me, he has changed football forever.” As for Guardiola himself, he insists he knows what he and his team need to do for them to go down as one of the best of all time.
"We have to win the Champions League to be considered one of the best teams!"
Redknapp obviously isn’t the first to call Pep Guardiola the greatest manager ever — even Noel Gallagher made similar comments about his revolutionary impact on football — but City fans will be pleased to hear that his sights are now well and truly focused on the two remaining games.
Guardiola might still be behind Fergie on major honours, with Pep now boasting 33 to the legendary Manchester United manager’s 49, but he is winning trophies at an alarmingly quick rate (33 in 14 years) and will inevitably win many more.
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With an all-Manchester FA Cup final on 3 June and then another Champions League final just seven days later, they are on the brink of greatness in the form of the coveted treble. The only question is, are they going to pull it off?
You can watch their final home game of the 2022/23 season HERE and see them lift the Premier League trophy down below:
Featured Image — Sky Sports (via Twitter)/Optus Sport (via YouTube)
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Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim gives Manchester United an ultimatum after submitting fifth bid
Danny Jones
Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani has issued Manchester United an ultimatum after submitting a fifth and supposedly final bid to buy the club.
Entering his fifth revised bid to buy Man United outright on Wednesday, the Middle Eastern banker and member of the Qatari royal family is reported to have told the club he is willing to pay “no more than £6 billion” for the takeover, an offer which sees him become the first to match the Glazer’s asking price.
However, in trying to give the negotiations a much-needed jolt — with Sheikh Jassim said to have grown frustrated with the long, drawn-out bidding process — his latest proposal also came with an ultimatum, telling the owners that they have until Friday, 8 June to accept his offer or else he will walk away.
So, rather than being strung along by the Glazers any further and potentially being dragged into another round of bidding with an arbitrary deadline, he has now given them until the end of the week to return their decision.
BREAKING: Sky News understands that Sheikh Jassim has made a fifth improved bid to buy Manchester United 💰🔴pic.twitter.com/YzTUvZ8OTR
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) June 7, 2023
As Sky Sports‘ Kaveh Solhekol went on to explain, Sheikh Jassim is now “frustrated and fed up” with how the bidding process has gone thus far, noting that talks first began almost seven months ago and there have been multiple so-called ‘deadlines’ that have led to little consequence or progress.
As a result, his bidding team have told the Glazers, board members and the Raine Group officials overseeing any potential deal that he will “no longer engage with the process” if the fifth bid is not accepted by Friday.
The chairman of Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) who spent time in England whilst being educated at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst also wants to get the deal done as quickly as possible in order to clear the debts and properly fund the project at the earliest opportunity ahead of next season.
In addition to clearing United’s debts which are estimated to be just under £1bn, the sheikh will reportedly pump sizeable funds into redeveloping the stadium (or building a new one) and investing in the squad. While his exact net worth is not known, his family’s wealth is estimated at around £275 billion.
As for whether the Glazers will actually adhere to Sheikh Jassim’s deadline and accept his fifth and final bid, it remains to be seen, but it looks like someone needs to take charge in these negotiations if they actually going to move forward.
Gary Neville has already warned that the “shoddy” bidding process could end up jeopardising next season if it continues to go on any longer and many fans think the Qatari prince’s all-or-nothing offer is the only option to finally get rid of the Glazers.
Manchester City fan gets treble tattoo before Champions League final
Danny Jones
We’ve seen plenty of tattoos gone wrong down the years and even more football fans getting ahead themselves, but it must have taken a special kind of confidence for this Manchester City fan to get the treble tattooed on his body before the Champions League final has even been played.
Man City may have taken one step closer to matching historic rivals Manchester United‘s achievement of winning the treble in 1999, lifting their fifth Premier League title in six years and adding yet another FA Cup to their trophy cabinet, but there’s still one massive game they need to win before they can boast the same.
The Blues take on Inter Milan in the Champions League final — just the second in their history — this weekend and have only ever won one continental trophy by beating Polish side Górnik Zabrze in the European Cup Winners’ Cup back in 1970.
Nevertheless, after yet another stellar domestic season and with two-time UCL winner Pep Guardiola at the helm, most fans, rivals and neutrals alike all think this is the year they’re going to lift their first Champions League — in fact, this man is certain of it.
The diehard City fan, simply known as Stuart on TikTok, shared multiple clips on his account on Tuesday, the first of which showed the treble tattoo in progress and has already had nearly 200,000 views in less than 24 hours.
Naturally, the comments underneath the videos are as you’d expect, with people remarking, “you’ve just made Inter win”, “he’s gonna regret that”, “RIP bro”, “pov: 2021” — the last CL final they qualified for and lost to Chelsea despite being heavy favourites — and so on.
However, responding to haters in the comments, Cityzen Stuart’s confidence looks to be unshakable, stating that it’s now “impossible” for them to lose and there’s “not a chance” Pep goes another yet without winning another Champions League.
Having already flown over to Turkey for the final in Istanbul this weekend, he shared a more recent video showing the tattoo in more detail, complete with full colour and shading.
Football fans are often superstitious (it’s such an unpredictable sport that it’s hard not to be) but it’s fair to say a lot of people are now worried he might have jinxed it, not to mention every single Red hoping that he has. For his sake, he better hope the footballing gods don’t take this kind of stuff into account.
In fact, this isn’t the first time a City fan has gotten a little bit ahead of themselves and put money and ink where their mouth is, as our minds immediately go back to 2009 and the time a supporter got a Champions League winners tattoo for the following 2010/2011 season.
This year’s final kicks off at 8pm on Saturday, 10 June and City fans everywhere will be hoping to Pep and co. lift the Champions League trophy in the club’s history and win a historic treble in the process.
They are already going to go down as one of the best squads ever assembled but, for many, this could see them held up there as the greatest of all time. The question is, can they take that final step?
Danny Jones -
22nd May 2023 
