Surely it would place a massive asterisk on all the trophies won during his time at Man City? In future discussions on the greatest manager would this be a talking point which stains our perception on him? Or will he still be lauded as the greatest by some despite the wider context?
He’s the Lance Armstrong of football.
He took steroids as a player and blamed it on his doctor (Dr. Ramon Segura)…
Then in 2009 when appointed Barcelona manager he hired the very same doctor that caused him to fail two drug tests in 2001.
During Pep Guardiola’s time at Bayern there were issues with Dr Hans Müller-Wohlfahrt who has served as the club medic since 1977…
The issues arose when Pep claimed the German wasn’t in the same class as Cugat.
In his autobiography, My Life and My Medicine, Müller-Wohlfahrt wrote that he was “blamed for numerous injuries, the physical condition of the players and ultimately for a defeat by Porto (in April 2015).”
Guardiola also used to say “it cannot be that injuries here last six weeks but in Spain only a fortnight," according to the German. 👀
Things came to a head with the saga over an injury to midfielder Thiago Alcantara. The Spanish midfielder was sent to Barcelona in March 2014 for treatment for a knee injury, which turned out to be a partial tear of the ACL.
“Thiago once returned from Spain after four weeks, seemingly fit,” Müller-Wohlfahrt wrote. “But when I evaluated him I said, ’stop! The injury has not healed completely, even though you are pain free’. Thiago got injured again and went on to miss a full year.” 👀
When joining Manchester City Pep Guardiola made it quite clear from the outset that he had to work with Cugat.