Pep Guardiola is as humble and honest a man as he is probably the super coach even his peers have long acknowledged as the best there is in the business.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard says he is in full agreement with Sam Allardyce\u2019s suggestion that the former is not a better manager than the former Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United boss, agreeing with the latter\u2019s claim that they\u2019re on the same level as managers.<\/p>\n
Allardyce will now be taking charge of his first Leeds United match this weekend with the often controversial 68-year-old confirmed on Wednesday as Javi Gracia\u2019s replacement for the final four games of the campaign. Allardyce\u2019s first test couldn\u2019t be any tougher when the Whites travel to the Etihad on Saturday as he does not have a good record, to put it mildly, in match-ups with Guardiola in all their previous encounters.<\/p>\n
Immediately after his appointment with the spotlight on him in anticipation of the upcoming match with the Cityzens, Allardyce made the audacious claim that there is \u2018nobody ahead\u2019 of him in terms of Premier League managerial credentials.<\/p>\n
\u201cFar too many people think that I am old and antiquated which is far from the truth,\u201d the interim Leeds boss opined audaciously.<\/p>\n
\u201cI might be 68 and old but there\u2019s nobody ahead of me in football terms. Not Pep, not [Jurgen] Klopp, not [Mikel] Arteta. It\u2019s all there with me. They do what they do and I do what I do. In terms of knowledge, I am not saying I\u2019m better than them but I\u2019m certainly as good as they are.”<\/p>\n
When Guardiola was approached for his opinions on Allardyce\u2019s forthright comments, the City manager was unhesitant in saying the older generation of coaches like Neil Warnock, Roy Hodgson, Harry Redknapp and Allardyce deserved full credit as they were the ones who paved the way for his generation of managers in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe [Allardyce] is right,\u201d said Guardiola. \u201cI want to be honest. Look what happened with Neil Warnock in Huddersfield. There\u2019s a tendency for these incredible managers, they have [left] this Premier League or this competition in better position.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are really good and help us to be what we are. Roy Hodgson for Crystal Palace, look what they have done, they are really good, they have incredible experience and they know the game perfectly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be tough [on Saturday] because he [Allardyce] has the charisma and he will put out the pressure on the players and knows exactly what to do in this situation in a relegation battle. These type of old managers\u2026 now people with 35, 40, [people think] we invent football. No, football is already created.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys helped us to do it and that\u2019s why. Neil Warnock, Huddersfield were in the last and now already out of the dangerous positions. I could not experience what Harry Redknapp has done in this country. There are many English managers who have done really well, you don\u2019t have to be young to be a good manager. As much experience you have you are good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whilst Allardyce is fully entitled to his own opinion that he is up there with the best of them, it is clear that Guardiola is certainly continuing to set stellar examples not only in his managerial and coaching capacity as second to none at the highest echelons in the football world – but also as an individual with true humility who does not need to prove anything anymore to anyone else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"